The Hidden One
by Mmmmwwww
Summary: *Chapter 7: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is UP!!!* Finally, the first day of the tournament had started...
1. Prologue: The Beginning

Disclaimer: I do not own any Bloody Roar characters here, except for Agemo. Steal Agemo and I'll have him to rips you into pieces.   
Dedication: Thanks to God, my editor, and my readers! Thanks to Hudson for creating Bloody Roar! Thanks to you readers for reviewing my works! Thanks to my editor for pointing out the plot hole in my first draft *cough*...not*cough*!   
Note: _Italic_ means the thought of a character. Yes, this is the revised version of The Hidden One. 

**The Hidden One** ****

**Prologue: The Beginning**__

_June 23, 1983_

Agemo Krimagi walks around his tiny house. As a one thousand and ninety-five days old child, or simply three full years old, he was living with his mother, a woman filled with depression. What he didn't know or notice was the fact that they've been moving around a lot in past three years. Agemo had never bother to ask or complain about it. Still, he was too young to remember his mother's name, even when he saw her for the last time.   
It was on a calm, gloomy day when his mother suddenly lifted him from his bed, whispering: "They are coming." Agemo didn't know what's going on but he found it imperative to follow his mother. When they reached the foyer, there was a loud bang and the front door shattered, sending splinters flying. All he could see was several strangers heading at his direction before his mother blocked the vision. Then with a brief shriek, his mother collapses and died, still gripping her son firmly. Agemo looked up at three men in black leather jackets; their hands were claws. One of them picked up and tucked Agemo under his arm before sprinting away and into a black van. He could see large, bold letters on the side of the van spelled out 'Tylon' in white. And a variety of emotions struck him. He could felt hate and anger toward the Tylon men but the sorrow of the death of his mother overwhelmed them at first. Soon enough, calmness settled down in Agemo's mind as his carrier flipped him into the van like a potato sack. 

_December 23, 1986_

"I don't know why it didn't work," a voice said.   
"Neither do I," a man with green Mohawk hair in a scientist said, his tag saying: Dr. Hajime Busuzima   
"Busuzima, there might be an error in the modification."   
"No, it's not about the genes, it's about the boy," Busuzima patted Agemo's dark brown hair. "Somehow, I don't even know how did his body accepted all the genes but the beast modifiers."   
Busuzima faced the voice; its owner was a man in black biker suit with 'Tylon' written over its chest pocket.   
"But I'll finish him within a month," the scientist promised.   
"Okay. Work hard because if you didn't finish him by the time arrive, I'll give you a taste of your own medicine," the man said, turning his back on Busuzima.   
Agemo could see a gleam of misery and anger in the scientist's eyes. Not a good sign and Agemo was correct. Busuzima approached the departing man, stopping him.   
"What?" the man replied then the next thing he knew was a large hand clutching to his throat.   
"Now, I'm tired of it. I'm tired of modifying the genes just because of a single mistake!" Busuzima screeched, spitting saliva and his skin became green scales, a tail grew out the base of his pant; his mouth became snout.   
The strangled man only managed to make out some choking sound as the grip around his neck strengthens.   
"My friend, I'm taking care of him, don't worry about it," the chameleon zoanthrope whispered and twisted his gripping hand.   
There was a clear, loud snap! Then the scientist let go of the man, who just collapse with his neck bent at an unnatural angle. Agemo could see that the man's neck was snapped like a twig. The chameleon faced Agemo.   
"My little kid, it's time for bed," its sang, holding up a needle filled with yellowish liquid.   
Agemo was put into sleep afterward. 

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**Author's note:** Oh well, now I'm still working on the MAJOR rewriting of The Hidden One. Still, it's going to be a long way before the revised version of Chapter 1 arrives... 


	2. Chapter 1: The Escape

Disclaimer: I do not own any of those BR characters, just my own characters and the ideas so don't sue me. Otherwise, may you rest in pieces.   
Dedication: Thanks to God and my readers! Thanks to you all for reviewing my works! Thanks to everyone!   
Note: _italic_ means thought of a character. 

**The Hidden One**

**Chapter 1: The Escape**

_August 16, 1995_

Agemo looks at his watch briefly.   
"It's close," Agemo said as he waited for the time to arrive.   
"Yes, Agemo, it's close," Hunter, another roommate of Agemo, spoke.   
"How many more minutes left?" Skyler asked, looking out the barred window where moonlight entered through as the only light source in the dark room just above Agemo.   
"Only about 337800 milliseconds left," Agemo took another glimpse at his specialized watch with an extra-hand representing milliseconds. He had received it as the final gift from his mother. Luckily that they didn't take it away.   
"Please, in minutes," Hunter said clumsily, he wasn't a walking calculator like Agemo.   
"Fifty-six decimal three minutes," Agemo replied. 

"How many time left now?" Skyler asked again for the nineteenth time in fifty-four minutes.   
"12000 milliseconds," Agemo noticed the impatience of the two tiger zoanthropes, "in other words, 2 minutes."   
"Good! Let's get ready," Skyler leaped out of his bunk, grabbing a dagger duct-taped to the bottom of his mattress.   
"Yeah, I say the rebellious zoanthropes--which is us and others, are ready now," Hunter exclaimed while removing his hidden spear and placed it in his hand.   
Agemo reached under his cot for a pair of sheathed katanas and strapped them to his back, straightening his navy ninja gi. The time had arrives, but nothing happens.   
"Huh? I thought--" Skyler's voice was interrupted by a distant explosion, "never mind, it's time to go." And he quickly leaped out of his bunk, almost bashing his head brutally on the metal frame of Hunter's bunk. 

Hunter proceeded to picklock the door and they found themselves in a bare corridor with the midnight crescent as its only light source.   
"I'll head for Lab_ Z136-E_, you guys head out first while I disable the power grid," Agemo had suggested.   
"No way, you are not going to the Elite zoanthrope lab by yourself," Skyler knew what Lab Z136-E was for.   
"I know what to do; I've been there before," Agemo said coldly. Skyler opened his mouth to protect but Agemo was heading eastward already.   
"This kid just can't be stopped, let's go," Hunter leaded Skyler other way. 

Agemo walked down the corridor cautiously until he reached a junction and turned right. It was all too quiet and Agemo could sense it. He would be expecting plenty of guards around the lab since that it was the backbone of Tylon Corporation. So far, so quiet, 11 minutes later, Agemo reached a steel door labeled _Z136-E_. On the top of the door was a sign saying Security Level: Maximum. Agemo had seen the sign and door millions times since he arrived here. To the left of the steel door was a metallic number pad for entering access codes. He had seen a guard punching the same numbers in over and over again every time he was sent in until he memorized it. He punched in the first four codes, and then a computerized voice asked him to enter the next code. Agemo entered another series of codes until another computerized voice said, Access Granted. The door lifted open, revealing another door labeled Warning: Radioactive materials. There was no number pad or a card slot. Instead of turning back, Agemo knocked on the door twice and it slid open. However, Agemo had a bad feeling because the second door was never closed unless the scientists are undergoing an important stage. There was fog coming out of the next room and Agemo sneaked in. 

Inside was a long, gloomy room. Liquid-filled test tubes lined up along the right and left walls neatly but there were no sights of a single creature; the last time he came here every single test tube had a creature in it. Agemo felt that something's definitely wrong again as he walked down the room, scanning the test tube with his hand around the hilt of one of the still-sheathed katanas. At the end of the room were three labeled doors, one of the locks was jammed and couldn't be open. Agemo opened a door labeled To Tylon Mainframe.   
It was just another corridor after the door. What Agemo was facing would have caused any ordinary people to vomit their guts out. The entire walls were smeared with blood and bodies covered most of the corridor, in pools of fresh blood. Some of them were headless, Agemo noticed, and the wounds looked as if a beast ripped the heads out. Even though their clothes were soaked in blood heavily, the young ninja could see that most of them were security guards, with a few scientists. Agemo kneeled down to examine a nearby corpse in a scientist's coat and studied the expression. One of the pupils was blown; signifying a tremendous blow to head, but it wasn't the cause of death. Instead, a hole in his rectum was the more likely cause of death. Agemo could see that he was killed during a surprise attack because some section of intestine was slightly outward, toward the front. Agemo then checked out the next corpse, a headless one. Agemo then turned the body around and spotted a long, gaping cut running down from its neck to the pelvis and the spine was gone. He then looks around a bit, found a section of vertebra nearby. Agemo finally decided to leave the bodies alone and felt a drop of blood dripping onto his back from above. He looked up and found the heads, still attaching to backbones, pinned against the ceiling by long, nail-like metal rods through the dead mouths. The bloody spines swung slowly from side to side. Agemo fought the urge to sick and left the corridor via another door, almost tripping into a heap of steaming guts near a disemboweled guard. 

Skyler was sliding his back against the wall with Hunter after him, evading a pair of running guards. He slowly edged toward a corner, and then there was a creaking sound behind him. He turned to face Hunter, who signaled he didn't make that sound. Just as he was about to slide closer to the corner, an exoskeleton-clad arm suddenly punched through the wall just before him and its claws grabbed for Skyler's face. The eternal sleep touched Skyler before he even notice it. 

Agemo found himself in a tiny room with another steel door locked by an electronic lock. There was a card slot to insert the key card required to unlock the door, but Agemo didn't have the key card. However, he found it just below the slot, clutched by a bloody severed arm. Someone's on brutal killing spree, Agemo thought. Then he snatched the key card and slid it into the slot, thus the access was granted.   
Now, he's facing a large computer console, with multiple monitor screens blinking with static. Agemo sat down on a chair located front of a large keyboard and inputted a few commands before the screens become a Tylon logo and a new window popped up, asking for passwords. Although Agemo didn't have the password, but he knew how to hack through the security program. A few minutes later, he realized that the program was a 2048-bit and changed the tactics. It was actually another twenty minutes before he fully hacked into the system. Now that he was facing a huge pile of databases and passed them all. Agemo headed straight for the security system control. The computer asked for another password but Agemo bypassed it. Soon, Agemo faced options on setting the computerized defense system but he couldn't find one for a complete shutdown so he just lower the setting to its lowest. He checked the facility map and saw that only 20 percents of the security system remained intact. This time Agemo headed for the power grid control and initiated a 99% shutdown, just as he thought he was done, a new window suddenly popped up, showing that emergency powers were begin used and that the entire complex except for the accesses to outside were unlocked. Agemo resumed overriding the system and unlocked one of the outer accesses. At the same time he reached out for an empty data disk stowed nearby then he downloaded every single bytes of the databases into the disk. When the downloading was finished, the entire disk was completely full. Agemo then put the disk into a thin, black disk case and stuffed the case into the inner left chest pocket of his ninja gi. Then he changed the passwords. 

Busuzima took a peek at his laptop computer, then said, "Huh? Someone's downloading all the data!" The chameleon zoanthrope slammed his laptop close and called the security. 

Agemo took a final glimpse at the computer, then something caught his attention: A pop-up window saying that a group of security guards were heading toward him. Calmly, Agemo looked up and found a ventilate hatch and leaped up toward it, shoved the hatch open inwardly, then squeezed himself into the large, rectangular pipe that was just enough for him to crawl. Agemo snapped the hatched back as he waited. Guards poured into the tiny room with their guns drew a few moments later. Agemo remained silent as the guards surveyed the seemly empty room for a bit, then one of them sat down at front of the computer console. Agemo could see that the guard was trying to reroute the power and change the security system setting but failed miserably. Eventually, they left soon as the hell broke loose outside. Agemo, who could see in darkness, remained in the pipe and started crawling in pitch black, toward outside. 

Hunter, now alone, glided sneakily around the complex, keeping a watchful eye for guards or the exoskeleton-clad zoanthrope. Then before him, a hatch was shoved open, Hunter leaped back in surprise but soon Agemo crawled out of the ventilate hatch.   
"Agemo," Hunter was pleased to see his friend alive, "where have you been?"   
"I was at the Tylon mainframe," Agemo replied, "where's Skyler?"   
Hunter frowned, "…he's killed…"   
"How?" Agemo raised an eyebrow and frowned.   
"I don't know, something just punched a hole through a wall and ripped his head off…" Hunter explained.   
Agemo shot Hunter a look, "so it's on killing spree…"   
"What?"   
"I don't know yet, but I went through a corridor where it killed," Agemo walked away, toward the back gate he had unlocked. 

Agemo and Hunter reached the back gate, but four squads of heavily armed guards were waiting for them.   
"Here they are!" Busuzima's voice commanded the squad.   
Agemo instantly unsheathed his katanas and deflected a burst of bullets. Hunter dodged the bullets and headed for the melee squads while Agemo approached the squads armed with assault rifles, dodging and deflecting bullets as he got closer and closer. When he got close enough, the squads scattered a bit. Agemo ran to front of a crouching rifleman and he swiftly decapitated him with a diagonal downward slash. Then he backhanded his right katana and sliced an assault rifle into halves before he finished the second rifleman with a fatal stab while deflecting bullets with his other katana. As soon as this one was down, Agemo began to feel something in his mind. Bloodlust, he thought, not bloodlust. However, he knew it isn't time to spare some lives; it's time to kill for survival and liberty. Agemo somersaulted just in time to dodge bullets and landed right behind a pair of riflemen. Without hesitant, he ripped his katanas into the hapless riflemen's torsos. Afterward, suddenly all the riflemen backed up and a yellowish figure speared toward Agemo, who dodged the attack just in time.   
Agemo leaped back a bit and looked at his attacker. He recognized him. It was Spider, the man who killed his own mother and a friend. Spider was covered in yellowish exoskeleton completely, with a stinger. Agemo knew that Spider is a scorpion zoanthrope and an Elite zoanthrope. He also knew that it's never smart to fight against an Elite zoanthrope in human form. Since that Agemo realized that Spider also killed his mother, whose name he never knows, he felt hate and anger. Although Agemo hadn't seen him for past twelve years, he still remembered it clearly. Spider suddenly speared a claw-like hand forward and Agemo was thinking too deeply to react quickly enough. The blow left a deep gash on Agemo's left upper arm. Spider slashed his left hand at Agemo and sent him recoiling with four new gashes on his right arm. Agemo was cornered and Spider had readied his stinger to strike.   
Agemo saw Spider crouching with his stinger poised to impale and it suddenly lunged at Agemo. He ducked and the stinger went overhead. Agemo quickly rolled away a bit and charged energy into his lower arms. With a flash, Agemo's lower arms and hands were covered by white, protective exoskeleton entirely with two long, purple blades growing out of the back of each lower arm. The gashes closed and healed quickly, but not instantly. Agemo leaped and landed right beside Spider, who attempted an unsuccessful attack. Agemo stabbed Spider deep in his rectum, penetrating the yellowish exoskeleton, and lifted him overhead. With a strong yank, Agemo ripped Spider into halves mercilessly. Spider never got the chance to scream. Then Agemo tossed the remains away, seeing that Hunter had escaped already, and a pair of black dragon wings appeared behind him. Agemo soared into the sky and vanished into the darkness just as the other rebellious zoanthropes bombed the Tylon complex. However, Agemo knew it wasn't over, just not yet. 

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**Author's note**: Now, time to work on Ch. 2... 


	3. Chapter 2: The Teacher on Call

Disclaimer: I do not own any of those BR characters. I only own my own characters, who is Agemo. Sue me or steal him and you'll be able to examine your own internal organs _closely..._   
Dedication: Thanks to God and my friends... Thanks to you all reviewers... Bah, this dedication's getting old, right?   
Note: _Italic_ means a thought of a character. 

**The Hidden One**

**Chapter 2: The Teacher on Call**

Five years after Agemo saw the last of the Tylon complex.   
Agemo stood on the top of a building merging into the urbanity. The night was calm and silent despite the heavy traffic below him. He looked around suspiciously, feeling something, and it was a beacon. He had that feeling many times before but failed to locate the source, then the very next day, the newspaper headline would talk about a massacre. Usually he felt that it was from afar, but this time it seemed closer. 

Robert leaded his gang down an alley, where the opposing gang was waiting for them. The gang leader stood facing his rival. Pistols could be seen tucked in every member's belt. He smirked at his opponent and his enemy smirked back. "Who go first?" someone asked.   
A big biker answered the question by throwing a right hook and started the ritual rumble, nobody noticed the black figure heading toward the fight. The figure's eyes gleamed in blood thirst and slowly walked toward the quarreling teenagers with four greenish blades growing out of the back of his lower arms… 

Agemo finally tracked the source and he leaped from building to building, toward the source. He arrived at an alley, but he was too late. The alley was littered with horribly maimed bodies. Several gang members were nailed against the alley walls. It was the first time he had been actually in this gruesome scene for five years. The smell of blood attracted flies already. Now, he knew that it was still alive after all and it wasn't Spider. Then he sensed something else, a zoanthrope on hunt. 

Kenji Ohgami ducked low to dodge a high kick, and swept his opponent's leg. Then his opponent stood up and launched a fury of punches at him, Kenji couldn't block the sudden combo soon enough and he was knocked out for good.   
"Kenji, I don't have anymore quarters," Uriko Nonomura exclaimed to her friend.   
"That's okay, it's time to go anyway," Kenji left the joystick at neutral and wait for the countdown the reach '0', then the ranking entering screen appeared. Kenji inputted 'KEJ' into the arcade game, the next screen showed that he was at a ranking of 24.   
"Just 24 as Iori Yagami!? I can do better as Ken!" someone nearby snickered and took the arcade. 

Outside the video arcade, Kenji and Uriko found themselves on a lonely street.   
"It's already 7:82!?" Uriko looked at her watch.   
"Time flies, I guess, we'll need to get back as soon as possible--" Kenji replied and noticed a figure around the corner, "huh?" he looked at the corner.   
"What?" Uriko asked.   
"I think I saw a wolf-shaped figure," he replied, "I think it might be Yugo."   
"I don't think that he would actually morph even when it's safe…"   
"Not yet." Kenji walked to the corner, with Uriko closely behind him, then something squeaked behind them. They looked back and were staring into a maroon bear zoanthrope.   
"ROOARRR!" the bear roared and attempted to land its massive paw on the teenagers but it was blocked, not by Kenji or Uriko.   
It was a ninja in navy gi and he had a mask on, showing only his eyes. The bear turned to face him and thrust its claws at the ninja. The ninja reached behind him and drew out a pair of katanas, crossing them. He blocked it again easily, this time he faked a slash on the bear zoanthrope, who raised its arms in defense. The ninja paused his arm movement and followed up with a hard kick to the bear's belly. It stumbled back a bit. The ninja then punched it hard in face. The bear decided that the ninja was somehow too quick for him and retreated, disappearing down the street.   
Kenji and Uriko remained silent. Slowly, the ninja turned to face them and there was a cold gleam in his brown eyes, then the ninja walked away. They didn't follow him. 

The next day, Kenji and Uriko were seated in their math class when a young man holding a briefcase walks inside the noisy classroom. Everyone fell silent. He was in his twenties, with brown hair and a smile on his face. He said, "Hi kids, I'm the teacher on call and your math teacher, Mr. Tugasaki, was sick. I'm assigned here to replace him for a couple months. I'm Mr. Agemo Krimagi and nice to meet you all."   
He turned around and wrote his name on the chalkboard, then faced the class. Kenji noticed a gleam in his eyes, a familiar gleam. Uriko also noticed it too. Agemo then called out the students' names. When he called Uriko and Kenji, they felt like that they've received a message, via telepathic way. _Yes, we've met before. I'm just here to look after you. I know you are zoanthrope, like me._

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**Author's Note**: Now onto Ch. 3! Well, it _is_ different than the first version of The Hidden One, right?   



	4. Chapter 3: The Warning

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of those BR characters. They belong to Hudson. I own Agemo and Agrimson. Steal them, may you rest in pieces and you can enjoy the one-way trip to hell.   
Dedication: Thanks to God and my reviewers. Thanks to Christi and Alica for letting me to use their characters for later chapters and for reviewing my work! Thanks to you all reviewers! Now sit back, grab a can of soda, and enjoy!   
Note: _Italic _means the thought of a character, narration, and/or emphasizing. 

**The Hidden One**

**Chapter 3: The Warning**

During the entire class, Uriko and Kenji fidgeted with extreme nervousness. Agemo pretended as if they've never met before. The teacher on call slammed a textbook close, then announced with a wide smile on his face, "It's time to go. Just one note, there's a test tomorrow," groans emerged from the entire classroom, "And. All of you may go now and see you all next day! Class dismissed."   
The clock struck three eleven and students were pouring out. 

Kenji and Uriko reached their neighboring houses harmlessly.   
"It was strange," Kenji said.   
"Yeah, somehow, I think I know who is the teacher on call," Uriko said.   
Kenji nodded and stepped inside Nonomura residence. He saw that everyone, Yugo, Alice, Long, Jane, Jenny, and Gado, were watching the sport channel at the living room.   
"Good timing, Kenji, the hockey game just started," Yugo mentioned Kenji to come over. Then the doorbell clanked.   
"I'll get it," Kenji unlocked the door and turned the doorknob. Agemo was standing behind the door; his expression was grim and serious, unlike the upbeat expression he had been wearing at school.   
"Mr. Krimagi?" Uriko saw him.   
"Who is that guy?" Long, who just happened to walk by, asked.   
"Oh, he's Mr. Krimagi, the teacher on call for today." Kenji said to Long, but Agemo raised his hand in a gesture.   
"No, I'm not a teacher, it was just a disguise to look after you," Agemo said, "and I'm here to warn you all."   
"What do you mean by warning?" Uriko asked.   
"Watch out for them," Agemo walked inside. Kenji let him.   
"Wait," Long said, "would you mind explain it?"   
"That's what I am going to do," 

Agemo was introduced to everyone else.   
"So, what do you mean by the warning?" Long asked the newcomer first.   
"I'm sure that all of you know about the Ripper," Ripper was the nickname the police gave the mysterious serial killer. Everyone in the living room nodded. Then the brown-haired ninja said, "he's only one person, or zoanthrope, you all have to watch out for. You all might have recalled that he just achieved his forty-fifth massacre in five years and the police don't have a single clue."   
"Why? We all know about him and that he might kill us," Yugo raised an eyebrow, "and, there are other dangers to watch out?"   
"I've noticed one thing, every time Ripper kills, there's always a single zoanthrope among other humans," Agemo said, "and we all could be killed off one by one. And, all of you know Busuzima Hajime, right?" Everyone nodded again.   
"Now, he's still producing an army of zoanthropes. But he won't lead the entire army; instead, he will just control the Elite zoanthropes, who are the co-leaders of the army. Elite zoanthropes are not any ordinary zoanthropes like you all here.   
"All Elite zoanthropes have undergone a special genetic therapy, where they all receive modified genes. Plus, all Elite zoanthropes can have more than one beast form. And they all were educated genetically, which made them smarter and deadlier. Most of them are in their twenties now, but don't underestimate them. They all could outwit you easily and mercilessly."   
"That… sounded very familiar…" Uriko commented.   
"Yes. It's because you underwent the same therapy," Agemo stated, "but you were only a prototype, so you weren't classified as a completed Elite zoanthrope.   
"But whoever met her five years ago should know how powerful the therapy had became. A chimera might sounded impossible but they achieved it…" he closed his eyes, rubbed the back of his left hand and stated, "…I am an Elite zoanthrope… But I escaped the facility five years ago… I denied becoming such a killing machine like the other Elite zoanthrope… It was all too late for me," the brown-haired young man opened his eyes and stared at his own hands, shaking his head lightly, "I already killed hundreds. I just can't bear to think the day… The day when I lost myself to another beast inside me, an unnatural beast whom I've been trying to get rid of. I just couldn't use my true beast with that exoskeleton-clad beast inside me… It was an Unborn, I can tell. But it was incomplete ever since I lost myself to the fully formed Unborn. I was able to reject a few genes but still some genes were lodged inside me. And the genes are preventing me from using my _true_ beast. Although I never used my original beast in full form, I know what it is and I've been able to use it partially, just partially."   
"…But… what is an Unborn?" the cyan-haired ninja asked.   
Agemo shot the young ninja a look, "I'm not certain but it's like a demon. An artificial demon, to be exact. It is created, not born."   
"How is that possible…?" the tiger zoanthrope asked.   
"I don't know, but it is time for me to go," the Elite zoanthrope stood up and walked to the porch. Yugo opened the door. Agemo paused, and faced Kenji and Uriko, with a fake smirk, "Don't forgot to study chapter five and six, you'll need to study anyway, for tomorrow's test."   
The teacher on call disappeared down the street. 

Agrimson pulled the door, making sure that it's locked firmly. There's always an evil smirk or grin on his face. Students were having a slumber party in a classroom above and he could hear the chatting. Now that all the doors were locked, he grabbed the long spear laid beside and walked up the stair, toward his next victims. Soon enough, he reached the classroom where the students had gathered. There were over thirty of them. It's going to be fun, Agrimson thought and walked inside the classroom.   
He was soon running down a hallway, then stopped beside a locker, hearing breathing within it. With a sinister smirk, he faced the locker and punctured the steel door with his spear easily. A student fell out of the locker, still alive and twitching in his pool of blood. Agrimson raised his spear, brought it down, up, down, up, down, up down.   
Later, he walked past an alcove stopped and impaled a frightened student who had breathed too heavily. Agrimson flung his spear from one side to another side, sending the hapless student flying down the hallway, leaving a trail of blood on the floor, walls, and ceiling. The body hit the ground with a thud and never stood up again. Agrimson faced the alcove again, where two other students were cowering in a corner. One thrust with his spear was all he did.   
Agrimson pressed an ear to a wall, hearing three distinct breathing. He stepped back a bit, raised his spear, and sliced the wall easily. There was a series of thudding sounds. He peeked into the hole on the wall, seeing four decapitated bodies, then he walked away, satisfied.   
He turned around a corner and faced five students, just as he expected. This time he used his dragon claws.   
That's enough for now, Agrimson thought as he tossed away the last of the mangled corpses, and left through an open window. There was only one solo survivor. 

Uriko and Kenji were walking down a street when Agemo joined them.   
"Good morning," he said, carrying a backpack on a shoulder, in his fake upbeat mood.   
"Morning," Kenji and Uriko replied without anything else as they just walked to school silently.   
When they reached the school, the front courtyard was crowded with students and police. There were also a squad of police cruisers and ambulances parked in front of the front gate. Kenji glanced at Uriko, then at Agemo, who looked forward and said, "Something's wrong." And they separated.   
It wasn't long when Uriko and Kenji found Erika, Uriko's best friend, among the crowd.   
"Hey Erika! What happened?" Uriko asked, attempting to get a peek above the crowd. Reporters and police officers were all over the place.   
"It's the Ripper, he struck again and right here," her best friend said grimly and palely.   
"Huh? How many were killed?" Kenji was surprised.   
"I think there are thirty of them… They all were mangled and mutilated horribly… I… don't even want to look at the body again… _ever…_" Erika grew paler and walked away in disgust.   
Uriko and Kenji could see why, as a body was hanging on the flagpole, right in the middle of the courtyard. Police had been trying to reach it since they arrived. The body was headless and disemboweled. It was strung to the pole by intestines and fresh blood was still dripping. The scene was so gruesome that they turned away.   
Agemo found the solo survivor. It was a young, scared freshman. She was trembling all over and was as pale as paper. When he went close enough for the girl, she widened her eyes and trembled ever more violent, clutching an officer's arm for protection. She mumbled in terror and pointed at Agemo, "He… he…" And all police officers looked at him.   
"…No… It's… not… him…" the girl forced the words out. Agemo walked over to her and spoke calmly, "Why did you think that it was me?"   
"B-because b-both of y-you looked a-alike…" the girl stammered, still trembling all over in terror.   
Agemo paused for a moment, "How?"   
"I-I don't know, you have the same facial appearance, except that he had those green eyes and black hair," the girl calmed down after Agemo injected her with his own inhuman calmness psychologically. The words raised a question in Agemo's mind, _huh? There's someone who looks just like me?_   
"Are you certain?" he asked again.   
"Yes, I would--" the girl searched for a word, "--never forgot him."   
"Thank you very much," Agemo walked away and the calmness on the girl disappeared as she went back into her trance of terror. He was determined to find the mysterious killer. 

"I found out that the killer looks alike to me," Agemo explained to the other zoanthropes in the living room. Again, Yugo, Alice, Kenji, Uriko, Long, Jane, Gado, and Jenny were here, all sitting on his or her choice. "But he has green eyes and black hair."   
Long thought for a moment, "Do you think that he's someone who's related to you?"   
"No, my mother died when I was only three, she was the only blood relative I know,"   
"Sorry about that,"   
"It's okay," Agemo shifted the topic back on the killer, "but we need to figure out how to stop him. He's still killing and he's getting closer and closer."   
"Yeah, but we need to find out who is he." Gado said.   
"Without a doubt, he might be an Elite zoanthrope," Yugo said, "that's how he was able to kill for five years without getting caught."   
"I have to agree with Yugo on that one," Jenny said, holding up a bulky folder, "I was able to find the autopsy reports on the bodies of the previous incidents."   
Agemo took the folder and thumbed through a few pages, then passed everyone each a different report. "Look, all the bodies were either mutilated or disemboweled. And there were many signs of claws and blades. It's very obvious that only an animal would do that but it doesn't cross out the possibility that the killer had used an animal as tool."   
"Indeed, and they were all killed within thirty minutes. I'm certain that he must have an excellent speed," Long searched through a page.   
"And brute force," Gado added, "several of the mutilated bodies weren't ripped into halves, but exploded under an extremely high force of impact. One of them was killed when he was hurled toward a wall with tremendous velocity."   
"And the strangest, probably the worst, of all, is that forty-six of them was debone with a single yank," Kenji threw in the another one. "And the debone bodies belonged to zoanthropes only."   
"Whoever did all those must be insane," Yugo said with a sigh, throwing his copy onto the coffee table.   
"No, I don't think so," Alice said, "all the cuts were straight and clean, which means he's a very calm killer."   
"Indeed," Agemo and Long agreed. 

For the next few days, Kenji and Uriko's school was closed. Agemo came visiting Nonomura residence occasionally, to discuss on the autopsy reports. But no improvements were found. The killer hadn't strike for a few days and Agemo didn't know if it's a good sign or not. 

Kenji's opponent stared at him mercilessly. Kenji charged at the red-haired man and attempted a sliding kick. But the red-haired man blocked it and grabbed him. Raising his enemy, the man laughed crazily as he engulfed his opponent with purple flames before throwing him away. Kenji stood up but was too late and his opponent already killed him. For the seventh times.   
"Dammit!" Kenji banged a fist on the arcade lightly.   
"Not again…" Uriko sighed.   
"Yeah, Iori is tough. Considering that he's not the final boss," the mole zoanthrope said. 

Agrimson sat on a bench in an empty street, waiting. He stared above him for a long moment until he heard approaching footsteps. There was two teenagers walking down the street, a boy with cyan hair and a girl with a braid. Agrimson knew who they were but he didn't made any move, except he took out a novel from his large jacket and started reading it, hiding his green eyes and black hair with a sunglasses and a hat.   
The mole zoanthrope walked down the street with Uriko beside him. It was empty except for a man sitting on a bench, wearing a hat and a sunglasses, and reading a book. They walked past him and exited the street safely. However, they both had an ominous feeling, which they couldn't shake off. They didn't notice the man was wearing a smirk. 

"How was the surveying, Omega One?" Busuzima was reading a document.   
"I saw them, Kenji Ohgami and Uriko Nonomura," the black hair man reported.   
"Where?" Busuzima looked up at Agrimson's face.   
"Down Fukuyama St. They were heading westward," Agrimson replied.   
"Good, have you followed them?" the scientist asked.   
"No," the spear wielder replied.   
"Okay, you are dismissed," the chameleon zoanthrope leaned back against his velvet chair. Agrimson left the room.   
"Uh? No luck?" a crocodile Elite zoanthrope asked Agrimson.   
"Nope,"   
"Yeah, you get to kill anyone you want, I envy you," another Elite zoanthrope said, "It's been five years and you never got caught."   
"Indeed… While you are outside, enjoying your killing and making those pesky humans pulling their hair out, we all were busily working on making an army," a third Elite zoanthrope said, working on a console.   
Agrimson, whistling, headed for his room. Two Elite zoanthropes were already snoring in his room and he had to nudge them out of the way. He grabbed his spear from the locker and headed for the lift, making a mental plan for his next massacre. About thirty miles away, Agemo snapped his eyes opened from his meditation. How did I get that premonition? Effortlessly, he grabbed his twin katana and headed for the next destination. 

Thirty minutes later, Agrimson made sure that there were no survivors as he wiped blood from his forehead. He scanned the entire factory silently and left. Agemo entered the factory a few seconds later, and found out that he was too late again. 

The next day, Agemo visited Nonomura residence again and everyone was here already. "It's the forty-seventh time now," Gado said, handing Agemo a newspaper. The front cover said, '_The Ripper struck again. Sixty-seven dead._' He thumbed through the newspaper, making sure that he went to the crime scene.   
"Yes, I know," he sighed.   
"He's getting closer now," Uriko said. Her school was ten blocks away but the factory was seven blocks away.   
"Indeed, it was as if all the time he's trying to get our attention," Long said.   
"His killing pattern was very unpredictable, although it's obvious that he's getting close to us," Agemo held up a map, he had marked all the killing sites on it.   
"Yes, the amount of killed seemly to depend on the amount of people here. In other words, he killed almost everyone at the killing sites," Kenji said.   
"What can we do now?" Jane asked.   
"We can either investigate and stop him or we wait for him to come," Agemo said. 

"On the headline, again?" an Elite zoanthrope asked Agrimson, who was cleaning his spear.   
"Yes," Agrimson rubbed a towel fiercely on the metal blade.   
"How many killed in total?" another Elite zoanthrope asked.   
"One-thousand and three-hundred ninety-seven humans and forty-seven zoanthropes," the killer said.   
"Omega One, come and see me, please," Busuzima's voice rang through an intercom.   
"Okay, guys, I'll see you all later," Agrimson said and left his bloodstained spear in his locker, heading for Busuzima's office.   
The scientist was grinning insanely in his office, "Omega One, I've got a plan for you."   
"What is it?" Agrimson said.   
"I want you to bring back my prized Bakuryu and the kitten girl to me," the chameleon said. 

The couple was walking down a lonely alley. "Where we can go?" Uriko asked Kenji.   
"I don't know, maybe we could go to the library for some old newspaper," he said.   
"Good idea," the half-beast zoanthrope said and they stopped.   
A man was in front of them, walking in their direction. He removed his hat, sunglasses and trench coat, revealing Agemo in a black ninja gi. In his hand was a long spear.   
"What the--" Kenji stopped, noticing the young man's emerald green eyes and black hair. He knew the man was not Agemo instantly.   
Agrimson walked toward them, with a smirk twisted onto his lips. They still didn't know his name. 

------------   
**Author's Note: **Now, time for me to sharpen the suspense... Dropping a review would be _very _nice so thanks! Heh, I'm telling you all that I'm going to add a bit of everything here... Yulice, Keniko, Jang, Alenny, Stelica, and Shenielle plus a new couple. Lucky for you sane-minded readers and unlucky for you yaoi lovers, there will be NO Hanszima or any disgusting craps like Yaoi or Yuri. >_ If you ever, _ever_ ask me to write that kind of crap, may you R.I.P. 


	5. Chapter 4: The First Duel between Agemo ...

Disclaimer: If I own any of those BR characters, all of you are dead already so I don't own any of those BR characters. They belongs to Hudson. But I _do_ own Agemo and other characters of mine.   
Dedication: Thanks to God and all of my friends! Thank you for NOT stealing my character!   
Note: _Italic_ means emphasizing/thought of a character. 

**The Hidden One**   
By RAYClovis

**Chapter 4: The First Battle between Agemo and Agrimson**

Agrimson approached the teenagers quickly. The two teenagers worked acted quickly and morphed into their beast forms. Agrimson raised his spear, making it looked as if he's going to stab. However, Agrimson attacked with the other end of the spear instead, and Kenji blocked it easily with his claws. Unfortunately, that was what Agrimson wanted as he smashed his left fist into the mole zoanthrope's face hard. Agrimson suddenly jerked his spear away and delivered a square face to the cat zoanthrope's chest. The cat was sent flying across the street, slamming her back against a wall. Agrimson suddenly produced a dagger from his belt and hurled it at Kenji, who was still recoiling. The dagger deflected off Kenji's claws easy enough but Agrimson grabbed the dagger again and this time he pinned Kenji's right arm to a wall deeply. The mole zoanthrope howled and found himself incapacitated. He couldn't move his arm with the dagger pinning his arm like a bug. Uriko was still reeling from the blow as Agrimson reached her. Uriko attempted a high kick, but Agrimson ducked the kick and slammed his fist against her chin again, elbowed her face, and grabbed her ankle suddenly. Agrimson flung the cat zoanthrope overhead like a rag doll. Uriko landed right next to Kenji upside-down. Agrimson dashed at her, with his spear raised. All Uriko and Kenji knew was that the killer raised his spear again and hurled it at Uriko, then suddenly something appeared between Uriko and the spear. It was Agemo, who grabbed the spear skillfully and stared at Agrimson with surprise. Agrimson's jaw was also dropped. They both stared at each other in silence for a long time.   
"…Who are you?" Agemo said slowly, shattering the uncomfortable silence.   
"No, who are _you_?" Agrimson asked Agemo angrily, "impersonating me, huh? I don't embrace impersonation!"   
"I'm not impersonating you! I'm just--" Agemo's quote was stopped by a hard kick to the side of his head.   
Agrimson snatched his spear back from the recoiling Agemo quickly and jabbed at the Agemo. Agemo saw the spear coming and leaped away, unsheathing his both of his katana. Agrimson quickly jerked his spear in Agemo's direction. Agemo blocked the swift blow with his katana and the blades clashed against each other… Uriko rushed to Kenji and removed the dagger from his arm. Kenji's wound closed and healed quickly. Agrimson knew that the dagger was removed and leaped back high, landing right beside Uriko. He then snatched the dagger from her hands and kicked her hard again, sending the cat zoanthrope flying into Kenji. Agemo was already next to Agrimson, ready to strike. Agrimson counterattacked with a low kick and smacked the spear on Agemo's forehead. Agemo grabbed the spear and Agrimson's throat. Without a sound, Agrimson twisted his spear free from Agemo's grip. Agemo quickly sidestepped to dodge a downward slash from the spear and sliced his katana at Agrimson. The slice created a long cut on Agrimson's left arm.   
"Uh? So you are going to kill me!" Agrimson decided to finish Agemo off as he morphed into his first beast form.   
Agrimson was quickly covered in navy exoskeleton entirely, with two long, fragile antennas growing out of the back of his head. A pair of long, sharp tentacle-like appendages grew out of his back. Four greenish blades grew out of the back of his lower arms. His eyes became gold colored. Agemo became extremely agitated.   
"What the hell? A complete Unborn?" he exclaimed.   
"Indeed," Agrimson replied, hurling a claw-like fist at Agemo's face with the blades retracted.   
Agemo stumbled back at the power of the punch, and at the same time Agrimson used a powerful combo on his opponent. Agrimson extended his blades and started a wild slash combo. The greenish blades sliced through Agemo's flesh mercilessly for a few seconds and Agrimson finished the combo with a powerful kick to his opponent's chest. Agemo slammed his back against a wall, dropping his katana. Agrimson did his final attack as he held the dagger by its tip, channeling his energy into the dagger, and hurled it at Agemo. The dagger pierced Agemo's easily and lodged into the wall behind him, missing his heart narrowly. The pinned man howled briefly. Agrimson was snickering in his human form. Agemo was covered with deep gashes, bleeding profusely. He was breathing heavily, but all the gashes closed quickly, with ease and his navy ninja gi became badly tattered. Agrimson ignored the recovering man and focused back on Kenji and Uriko, who were in their fighting stance.   
"Playtime's over, kids," Agrimson said with a smile, picking up his spear.   
Uriko and Kenji dashed at Agrimson simultaneously, but Agrimson suddenly dropped a smoke bomb and he disappeared in a puff of gray cloud. Agrimson reappeared behind them. Before Kenji and Uriko knew anything, Agrimson already smashed his fists into the backs of their heads. The two slammed their faces into the wall hard and they lost their consciousness. Agemo was still struggling to remove the dagger out but it won't budge.   
"Now, that's a lesson for you from me," Agrimson chuckled at Agemo's attempts to unpin himself.   
Agrimson walked over to the two unconscious teenagers and picked them up.   
"Who are you…?" Agemo asked Agrimson again.   
"Agrimson," Agrimson leaped away from sight, carrying Kenji and Uriko.   
Agemo pulled at the dagger again, it still won't move stubbornly. Actually it was another twenty minutes before the dagger removed itself from Agemo's chest mystically. And when it did, Agemo was gasping for air, studying the dagger. With a sigh, he then stood up and sheathes back his katana. He looked around, seeing that the street was trashed with craters on the walls and a section of the wall was splattered with his own blood. He leaped away with the dagger. Now that he knew a bit more information about Agrimson, he's going to uncover the truth, and nothing could stop him from doing so. Not even death.

-------------   
**Author's Note: **Yeah, this is one of the shortest chapter of The Hidden One... I know, I know... 


	6. Chapter 5: Lab Z-Delta-E

Disclaimer: I do not own any of those BR characters. They belong to Hudson. I only own my characters, Agemo, Agrimson, and Shannon. Anyway, if I do own BR, then PF won't be SO busunutsucking, crappy, lame, and shitty... Hell, and I'd be working on BRIV now instead of this fic. Oh and that you wouldn't see Xion, Uranus, Kohryu or other toxic wastes. AND Agemo, Agrimson, and Shannon would be in III, PF, and IV with decent storylines for them so they are NOT pointless... AND there would be Story mode in III, PF, and later installment... AND I would have killed Cronos in everyone's endings in PF... AND Uranus(if I must include her) would become the ultimate whore in her III and PF endings... AND... *continues and knows he's going to get the award for the longest disclaimer...(or not.)*   
Dedication: Thanks to God and my friends! Thanks to you all reviewers for reviewing my piece of work!   
Note: _Italic_ means a thought of a character/emphasizing 

**The Hidden One**   
by RAYClovis

**Chapter 5: Lab Z-Delta-E**

Alice was on a shopping spree and Yugo became the (usual) unlucky victim once more. The wolf zoanthrope rolled his eyes every time his girlfriend asked him to come with her to the mall, knowing it's going to be a long day. He knew he could do nothing to stop her from doing so. He also must accompany her for the sake of the killer, who might strike anytime, out here. Alice kept launching volleys of questions on the wolf zoanthrope's ears. Yugo merely nodded at every one of her questions tiresomely. He usually ended the question attack with a sigh but this time it didn't work. In the midst of Alice's usual question attacks, Yugo's cell phone rang, thus saving him from an appointment to the doctor. _This better be good and long,_ Yugo's mind complained, _or I'll have to pay another hospital bill._   
He put the receiver to his ear, "Yugo Ohgami."   
"Yugo, this is Agemo Krimagi," Agemo replied from the other side, "and I have bad news for you. Gather everyone at Nonomura's house, it's urgent."   
"What is it?"   
"Don't ask, just do it and I'll explain to everyone when we gathered,"   
Yugo obeyed Agemo's urgent commands. 

"Where's Uriko and Kenji?" Alice asked.   
Everyone except Agemo, Uriko, and Kenji were waiting in the living room already.   
"I don't know what happened, but they won't response to my calls," Yugo shrugged.   
"I think I'll look for them, where did they go?" Long stood up.   
"They were captured," Agemo's voice suddenly sprang in.   
Agemo was standing at the doorway, and his navy ninja gi was badly tattered.   
"What happened?" Jane stood up.   
"I met Agrimson," Agemo replied, drawing a deep breath, "he looked exactly like me, with black hair and green eyes, just like the girl described. He took Uriko and Kenji away."   
"Did you stop him?" Long asked, rubbing his forehead.   
Agemo produced a dagger with black engravings on its sides, shaking his head, "he pinned me against a wall with it, he was also a specialist with spear," he inhaled, "he was also an Unborn."   
"An Unborn? Just like you?" Yugo said.   
"Yes, but he is a complete version of an Unborn, I'm merely less than a tenth of an Unborn," Agemo replied, "and I was able to find out where he was heading for, I don't even know how." With a deep breath, he added, "I'll go by myself, it's too dangerous for you." 

Busuzima was cheerful when he saw Agrimson coming back with Kenji and Uriko.   
"Omega One! Excellent job! Just put and strap them on the examination tables and I'll prepare the genes!" Busuzima turned to a group of seven Elite zoanthropes, "Omicron seven-oh-three, Alpha five-oh-six, and Delta three-six-nine! Three of you go to Lab Z-Beta-E and help the others over there!"   
The three Elite zoanthropes obeyed and left the underground laboratory. Later on, jet whirring could be heard. Busuzima headed for the gene storage room. He punched in a few codes and shoved the door open. The room was extremely cold with mist littering across the floor, lining along the walls were labeled cabinets, all of them containing needles filled with colored liquid. Busuzima scanned through the cabinets. He selected D-Omicron-Green and took out two needles filled with greenish liquid. The scientist hesitated a bit and took out two needles from a cabinet labeled U-Omega-White before he left the room. Agrimson was leaning against a wall nearby, slinging his spear over his shoulder. He said nothing as Busuzima strolled by. 

Kenji slowly regained his consciousness as he tried to bear a headache. Groaning a bit, he forced his eyes open, seeing only a blinding bright light in front of him. The young ninja tired to cover his eyes with a hand, but he realized he couldn't move his arms or legs. Vainly he tried again, realizing that he was tightly bound to a metal table by thick leather straps. Then there was a stinging pain from his left shoulder that was easily ignored. Lifting his head, he looked around quickly. Uriko, still unconscious, was also bound to another metal table nearby. They were in a white room, with ceramic tiled floor and wall, a brown wooden door stood at the wall in front of him. The lights above him was a pair of large lamps like those he had seen in the operation room of a hospital. A small metal cart was parked nearby, on the top of it was a metal tray with four narrow needles. One of the needles was filled with hunter green liquid, but the other needle was used and empty. The last two needles were still filled with milky white liquid. He scanned the room again, then the door opened.   
"Ha! Now so you are awake!" Busuzima walked into the room, wearing a white lab coat, with a crazed grin.   
"…What…are…you…doing?" Kenji felt as if there was a drought in his throat.   
"What else do you think I would what to do with a cute cat?" Busuzima gestured to the girl, "let's share, will ya?" the crazed man taunted.   
"…Keep…your…dirty…hands…off…her…" Kenji warned with an angry tone.   
"Ohh! I'm afraid!" Busuzima continued his taunting.   
"…You…scumbag…" Kenji struggled to break free, wishing he could smash the taunting face in.   
"Don't forget that you're strapped!" the scientist laughed.   
_Oh God, I just want to rip that goddamned face out._ Kenji struggled again, his teeth clutching. The leather straps pressed firmly against his flesh and school uniform.   
"You can just watch and enjoy! So long, sucker!" the chameleon freak laughed again and walked toward the girl, "Let me think… What could I do with her? So many ways… I know! I'll do them all!" The scientist reached out and started unbuttoning her pale shirt.   
Kenji immediately felt another surge of anger, pulling hard on the straps again and failed. All he hoped was to stop that man from molesting his girlfriend. He pulled using every single ounce of his strength and tried morphing but he found himself unable to morph. The molester was done with his unbuttoning. An orange T-shirt formed a temporary barrier. The scientist produced a large pair of scissors from his pocket and started hacking the orange fabric. The bound teenager pulled hard again. Then the crazed man snipped the last blockage, a pink bra, away. Kenji found himself unable to control the rage inside him as the molester continued molesting her bare breasts.   
"_Ugh!_" he screamed and pulled hard again, this time finding a new source of energy.   
The straps binding him had snapped easily under Kenji's new and tremendous strength. Before the molester could know what just happened, Kenji already leaped from his table and delivered a flying kick to his opponent's face, sending him flying over Uriko's table. The molester slammed his back against the ceramic wall hard. The girl finally regained her consciousness when the ninja destroyed her leather straps. Uriko found her shirt unbuttoned and her T-shirt and bra were cut into halves. Kenji gave her a brief, tight hug while locking his glare on the molester.   
"Dammit! Not that quick!" Busuzima stood up struggling.   
"Get away from my girlfriend!" the ninja warned him again, covering Uriko's bare chest.   
Uriko immediately knew what happened and quickly started buttoning her pale shirt. The man, who was similar to Agemo and Kenji met before, suddenly ran into the room as soon as she finished buttoning her loose shirt. The young man was still wearing a black ninja gi and holding a long red spear laced with black. The spearhead was long and thin, with black engravings on it. 

"Who are you?" Kenji asked the newcomer, still covering his girlfriend's chest.   
"Agrimson."   
"Omega One! Just in time! Now caught them!"   
The spear wielder walked past them to the wall opposite of the door.   
"What are you doing!? Omega One, I say catch them!"   
Agrimson, holding his spear with other hand, raised his right fist and punched the wall hard. There was a deafening crack as the wall collapsed. Agemo was standing behind the wall with his right fist extended. Agemo was also still in his tattered black ninja gi and the two sheathed katana strapped to his back. The brown-haired ninja also looked renewed since the last battle. Agrimson smirked.   
"So? You are here to kill me?" he held the red spear in his hands, "very suicidal, impersonator."   
"I'm not a impostor! I'm Agemo and I'm here to save my friends."   
"I don't care, and I disallow impersonators."   
Agemo quickly swerved to a side to dodge a jab from Agrimson's spear. Swiftly he landed a punch on Agrimson's chest, sending him reeling back. Agrimson wouldn't be fooled easily as he changed the stab into a downward slash. His opponent blocked it and kicked Agrimson hard at his chest. Agrimson was sent flying but he landed not far away, knocking the metal cart. Three of the needles shattered but one milky white needle survived. Agemo quickly swept his foe unwillingly. Agrimson fell at the quick attack. There was a grunt, and Agrimson noticed the milky white needle that survived and grabbed it. He kick-flipped up, holding onto the needle with a hand. Agemo was just about to do a high roundhouse but Agrimson ducked low and jabbed the needle into Agemo's left biceps hard. 

Agemo felt the stinging pain in his left arm but then he realized that Agrimson had emptied the needle into his body. He felt himself stunned a bit and Agrimson quickly kicked him in chest hard. Agemo merely stumbled back and Agrimson charged energy into his right fist. There was a dull pain as Agrimson slammed his powered fist on Agemo's face, sending him flying into the next room. At the same time, Kenji noticed that the chameleon zoanthrope had morphed and was heading in his direction.   
"Stay away!" the mole zoanthrope morphed.   
The chameleon quickly attempted to grab the young ninja, who saw that coming and stabbed at him. There was a shriek as Kenji's massive claws ripped through Busuzima's triceps easily. Blood shot out of the dissected arteries and veins profusely. The crimson liquid soaked the mole zoanthrope's black school uniform and fur, as well as the insane scientist's white lab coat. Then Kenji quick thrust his massive palm at the molester, sending him flying out. The chameleon's severed arm landed with a thud right next to Kenji's shoes. 

Agemo slammed his back against some kind of huge glass test tube, shattering it. The room was long, high, and wide. There were test tubes lining up neatly at the sides of the corridor-like room. Most of the test tubes were still filled with liquid and incomplete Elite zoanthropes and acted as the eerie light source of the room. Attached to each of the test tubes was a console for monitoring the process and vital signs.   
The brown-haired ninja found himself denting the console of the empty test tube he slammed his back against. There was a groan of pain as he struggled to get up, cutting his hands and knees on the shattered glass. He also felt something inside him. He felt as if it's going to explode inside him. Wincing at the pain, he slowly stood up. He was sweating quite badly. Then the thing inside him attempted to take control over him. For a moment, his skin became white exoskeleton, a pair of Unborn appendages exploded out of his back, and his eyes became golden yellow. He had become a full Unborn. 

Kenji, who had morphed back into human form, was surprised to see Agemo as a full Unborn. Uriko also looked as surprised at him. Agrimson was merely smiling, not moving, while Busuzima trotted off, clutching to his bleeding, dissected wound. Agemo then dropped to a knee, and struggled to morph back into human with a light growl. His eyes showed agony over the Unborn controlling him.   
"No…" he closed his eyes, shaking his head lightly.   
His entire body shuddered as if the newly implanted genes were devouring him slowly. Determined, he reached back and pulled out a katana from its sheath. Agemo took a deep breath, watching the black-haired ninja. Swiftly and suddenly he wrapped his hands around the hilt of the katana, pointed the weapon at himself, and thrust it deeply into his own abdomen. 

Agemo could felt the pain intensifying, but he also felt that the Unborn genes were weakened. Flinching, he let go of his katana and dropped to all four, his hands clutching in fist. His katana remained impaling its owner, but flowing out of the wound wasn't blood. It was white liquid.   
Agrimson ceased smiling when he noticed the pool of white liquid forming below the hilt. Agemo continued to reject as much genes as possible from his body. It was a long moment, but nobody moved. He panted for awhile, making sure that he was free of the Unborn inside him. He let out a long sigh of relief and looked at Agrimson, then the teenagers behind the spear-carrier, then back to the black-haired man.   
"…Yes… I finally broke free of the curse…" Agemo got up on a knee and grabbed his katana with a hand, "…Now… I can become back into a natural zoanthrope again… For good." With a single jerk, he pulled the katana from his abdominal, splattered a bit of blood onto the ground but he merely flinched.   
"What? How did you reject them!?" Agrimson moved into his fighting stance, with his spear in a hand. 

Agemo merely said nothing as he put the bloodstained katana back into its sheath, with his wound closing almost instantly. Agrimson knew he couldn't heal himself that quick. Agemo then closed his eyes, bowing his head slightly, and drew a deep breath. He then snapped his eyes open at Agrimson, the eyes had become blood red with black slits at pupils. A pair of black membranous wings exploded out of his back. The wings were enormous in size and there was five finger bones supporting each of the wings. The knuckles and the ends of the finger bones were short, black spikes. Then black, sharp scales covered his all of his skin. His head grew longer and became a black dragon's head with four long, straight horns pointing backward. His fingers and toes became large, black long talons. A long, slender spiked tail grew out of the base of his pants. His neck became longer as he finally finished transforming into a humanoid black dragon. The katana were still firmly strapped between his wings. His ninja gi was a bit more tattered but still usable.   
"…The natural beast form of a zoanthrope is usually its deadliest form…" the black dragon said with a growling voice, "…I don't like my Unborn form… It is a curse…"   
"A dragon as a natural beast form? Impossible!" Agrimson already transformed into his navy Unborn form, with the greenish blades extended.   
"It might be virtually impossible, but it is still possible. Nothing is impossible in the world."   
"I don't give a damn if the dragon is a natural beast form, I would still beat the crap out of you!"   
"You can beat me, but I will be back…" the black dragon shook his head.   
Agrimson dashed at him suddenly. 

Kenji, still clutching to Uriko firmly, quickly looked around for an exit while the dragon was fighting against the Unborn. He sighted one, a fire door at one end of the corridor-like room. He then ran for it with his girlfriend, hoping that they could make it out. 

Agrimson quickly executed a slash at Agemo. The dragon leaped up into air and landed behind the Unborn. The appendages attacked him by jabbing but he dodged them with a very high speed. His mind immediately raced for and found a move. _The Dragon Shredder._   
Agemo immediately uppercut the Unborn, sending him spiraling high in air. A black aura covered him quickly and he flared at his falling opponent with a roar. The aura became a huge black serpent dragon. The aura dragon quickly grabbed its target with its mouth and thrashed all over the room in a frenzy-like manner, searing his opponent's health away quickly while destroying incomplete Elite zoanthropes. After a few moment of slamming around, the serpent dragon pinned Agrimson against a wall, continuing to inflict pain on him. Slowly it began to dissipate, revealing Agemo. The black dragon wasn't done yet as he grabbed onto the wall above Agrimson with his foot talons, clutching to the Unborn with his paws. Finally he charged energy into his palm and launched Agrimson toward the ground hard before reverting into human form. Agemo then landed right next to the downed Unborn. Even he was surprised at his own power but he also knew he wasted too much of his own energy.   
Agrimson slowly stood up, facing his opponent ten metres away. His exoskeleton had a lot of cracks on it, but it was also rebuilding itself at a fair rate. The Unborn looked as if he was grinning. Then with a cracking sound, his appendages split into a pair of dragon wings just like Agemo's but they were red instead.   
"I'm not only an Unborn, you son of a bitch!" Agrimson outstretched his red wings and shot at Agemo with his blades extended.   
Agemo found that it was too late at the four greenish blades impaled him easily and Agrimson pinned him against a wall.   
"How about an eye for an eye?" Agrimson snickered.   
The brown-haired ninja winced again in pain and suddenly did a powerful side kick to the Unborn's head. The Unborn blades snapped unusually easy and remained lodging inside Agemo's chest. Agrimson quickly stepped back and laughed, morphing back into human form.   
"That ought to teach you a lesson, anyway, I'm off. See you in hell!" Agrimson then turned around and walked away, slinging his spear over his shoulder.   
Agemo could hear time bombs ticking but he found himself exhausted. Agrimson moved out of sight quickly and Agemo was left alone. 

Kenji and Uriko finally exited the underground laboratory after a long flight of stair. It was dark already and cool breeze calmed them right away. They faced a cliff and walked over to it, seeing that it was a very steep one before turning away. They were still amazed that no one stopped them. As soon as they turned around, they froze. A pair of armed helicopters was hovering lowly in front of them. Agrimson was one of the pilots, with Busuzima as a passenger of the other armed helicopter, still holding his massive wound.   
"Fire!" The chameleon zoanthrope's voice rang through the air.   
Kenji and Uriko immediately turned around and leaped down the cliff just in time before rockets pounced at where they were standing. Soon they were falling at a high speed. Kenji was the first to act as he immediately took his girlfriend's hand and attempted to grab onto a handhold with his other hand. The cliffside cut his hand badly for a long moment before he finally grabbed onto a tree root over three hundred metres from the surface above them and seven hundred metres from the surface below them.   
Uriko also immediately acted as soon as their fall was broke, grabbing a handhold onto the cliffside. Kenji was still clutching to her hand and the tree root that saved their lives. He didn't know how long he could last with his hand bleeding in pain. Soon, they both found other handholds and footholds and clutched onto them. Unfortunately, the two gunships were descending toward them.   
They both panicked slightly as soon as the two gunships leveled themselves with them. Agrimson's cold expression could be seen and Busuzima shouted again, "_Fire!_" 

A pair of missiles was fired at the two teenagers, closing in fast. The missiles cruised through the cold air easily, leaving a trail of gray smoke. Just as they thought they are going to die, something suddenly appeared right in front of the missiles and saved them. They couldn't see whatever blocked the missiles for them but they could see a falling figure disappearing into the darkness below them. The two gunships flew away, and the pilots thought the teenagers were finished. Except that Agrimson knew they were still alive but he remained silent about it.   
About an hour later, Yugo and his friends arrived and found them hanging on a tree root three hundred metres below. Luckily, there was a rope long enough in the car trunk. As soon as they were on the surface, Kenji gave his girlfriend another hug, a longer and tighter one this time, unbelieving that they narrowly escaped death again. 

------------   
**Author's Note: **Hell, I'm not working on another fic now. I'm going to work in Ch. 6 now... ~_~;; Time to introduce and characterize Shannon... I'm sure most of you enjoy having Busuzima losing a limb... Hehehe... Who want me to kill that Cronos the Chicken Wuss and Ganesa the Smelly Elephant? For those in favor say: "KILL THAT GODDAMNED GAY CHICKEN SHIT AND HIS DIMWIT GREG WANNABE SNOTTY BODYGUARD!!!" or something like that... For those who want me to kill other toxic wastes say: "FUCK ALL THOSE POINTLESS CHARACTERS!!!" or something like that... Gwahaha... Massacre time... 


	7. Chapter 6: The Recovery

Disclaimer: *holds up a sign said: "All those BR characters belong to Hudson not me. Because if I own them, then BR:PF wouldn't suck."* Then again, I DO own Agemo, Agrimson, and Shannon!   
Dedication: Thanks to God and my friends! Thanks to you all Cronos-haters out here!   
Note: _Italic_ means thought of a character/emphasizing. 

**The Hidden One**   
By RAYClovis

**Chapter 6: The Recovery**

Shannon Tsunami cruised high above the forest freely as a falcon zoanthrope. Her body was covered by dark brown feather laced with white. Her head was just same as a falcon's head with a bright yellow, slightly curved beak and dark brown feathers. Her fingers and toes were long, black curved talons. Her long, pointed wings were right below her collarbones instead of having her arms becoming the wings. The tips of her wings were white. She was nicknamed the 'Brown Angel' because of her beast form appearance. She was also a full-time black belt martial instructor since she was only seventeen.   
She lived near the coast and the mountains, enjoying the cool sea breeze and cruising over the green forest. Although her real first name is Shanyu, everyone called her Shannon. Her name had made it easy to raise false alarms. She remembered one day everyone fled when she was walking among the beach and suddenly a P.A system called out her last name loudly. It happened to be her joker friends who were on the P.A system. She didn't understand how did her family got that family name. The fact that the fake tsunami alerts had happened many times before.   
She lived with two refugees who were scientists of a Tylon lab. They had become good friends afterward. The two scientists were also zoanthropes but only one of them was a natural zoanthrope like her. The other scientist fell victim to the man-made zoanthrope experiments.   
Yesterday there was a huge explosion on the top of a cliffside in the midnight. She was curious to check it. 

She glided to the scene within a few minutes and the sun just came out, warming her feathers gently. She could see a charred building and a patch of burned ground right next to the cliff drop. Nobody except few really noticed it because the place was desolated and she knew it was really an abandoned laboratory filled with explosive chemicals that are not harmful to the environment. Her falcon eyes scanned the charred place from above then she took a glance at the cliffside. She saw a long, vertical trail of maroon on it.   
The maroon trail was thin and dark enough that it would take a sharp eye to notice it among the dark cliffside. Shannon also noticed a few breaks between the trails. She stooped in closer and spotted a figure lying right below the maroon trail, on a large boulder. Filled with curiosity, she glided smoothly to the boulder and morphed back into her human form as soon as she landed. She was a twenty years old slender woman with long light brown hair and eyes. Her skin was smooth and bronze-colored. She was wearing a tan judo gi with black belt. And she approached the figure on the boulder carefully. 

Lying on the boulder with his back facing upward was an unconscious young man wearing a navy ninja gi that had been real badly tattered. The boulder he was lying on was soaked with dry maroon almost entirely. Strapped to his back was a pair of long sheaths crossing each other, forming an 'X' with the hilts showing over the shoulders. His thin hair was dark brown and he was rather skinny, youthful, and handsome. What caught Shannon's eyes was a pair of black dragon wings growing out of his back, just below his shoulders. They were huge, larger than her wings, and spiked at the joints and the end of the finger bones. He was also extremely injured. He was covered in deep, wide gashes and cuts. A few patches of skin were scrapped off, forming huge wounds. Shannon examined him closer and found four greenish blades sticking out of his back. She then carefully turned him over, and saw the jagged ends of the greenish blades poking out of his chest. Hesitantly, she placed two fingers on his neck, checking for pulse. Sensing the weak pulse, a faint thread of hope rose in her heart. After looking around for a moment, she decided to take him back and morphed. 

Soon, she carefully landed on the balcony of her two-story house and reverted back into human form before carrying the unconscious man inside, calling out her friends' names. Alica Tylon, a young woman with white hair and black bang, was first to help her and Stephen Goldberg, an American scientist who became an unfortunate experimenting victim and his skin were now purplish-blue and exoskeleton-like, came in soon.   
"What the hell happened?" Alica asked, studying the black dragon wings with a curious expression.   
"This man was injured, I found him lying on a boulder."   
"¡­What is his beast form¡­? I've never seen anything like this¡­" Stephen, also named Stun, looked at the wings, tapping a claw-like finger against his other palm.   
"I don't know, but we've got to help him. He's got multiple injuries." Shannon hauled the brown-haired man into a room.   
"Why don't we just send him to the hospital?" Alica said.   
"¡­Dear¡­ The nearest hospital is over an hour far away¡­ He might die anytime¡­" Stun answered, whispering with his deformed mouth.   
"Give me a hand, you guys, we've got to remove the blades first." Shannon laid the young man onto a futon, removing his katana.   
"Okay." Alica went off for first aid kit. 

"¡­His wounds aren't healing, nor they are closing¡­ It's very odd¡­" Stun said, "¡­he's still in his beast form, so the wounds should start healing¡­ but they aren't."   
"I don't know why, but we've got to take care of him." Shannon said, bandaging the young man's wounds.   
The stranger didn't wake up until three weeks later. 

Agemo slowly moved his eyelids, carefully opening them. With a moan, he placed a hand on his face, waking up in a dark room. His chest and head were still hurting badly. Struggling, he sat up and shook his head before examining himself. He realized that he was heavily bandaged at his chest, arms, head, and legs. The blades that had impaled him were gone, removed. His tattered top was removed but his katana was laid beside. Drawing a deep breath in, he looked around, seeing he was sitting on futon in a room with rice mat. Suddenly the lights were turned on.   
"Hi, you finally woke up!" a woman's voice said. 

Agemo looked at a young, slender woman with long, smooth brown hair. She was in her early twenties, as far as he could see. She's also a zoanthrope, Agemo sensed.   
"¡­Where am I¡­?" Agemo said hoarsely.   
"You're okay in here, I'm Shanyu Tsunami, but everyone call me Shannon." She introduced herself, "What's your name?"   
"Agemo Krimagi¡­ What happened?"   
"I found you unconscious lying on a boulder," Shannon smiled warmly, "you were injured. Impaled and burned, and I was amazed that you survived. It looked as if you sustained an explosion."   
"¡­Thanks for saving my life¡­" he placed a hand on his forehead.   
"It's okay, now please just rest. You're still unhealed."   
"¡­What do you mean?"   
"Your wounds didn't close or heal, even though you're in your beast form."   
Agemo noticed his black wings for the first time, "¡­Oh¡­ I didn't notice them¡­"   
The black wings shrank and disappeared.   
"Are you hungry or something?"   
"¡­I'm not hungry¡­" Agemo lied back down.   
"Okay, rest." she smiled again and turned around.   
"¡­Thanks¡­" he rested, smiling. 

The next morning, Shannon walked into Agemo's room carrying a tray of breakfast, and she was surprised that Agemo was already awake, looking out the window while rubbing a hand on his forehead.   
"Morning, how are you feeling now?" She said.   
"Morning, I'm fine, anyway. Thanks for your help." He replied with a faint sigh.   
"Was something wrong?"   
"No, nothing really wrong."   
"Oh, and I brought you some food and clothes." Shannon put the tray down.   
"Thanks again."   
"It's okay anyway again."   
Agemo sat up and started eating. Just in time, Alica and Stun walked in.   
"Hey Agemo, meet my friends¡­" Shannon introduced him to her friends, explaining Stun's unstable appearance.   
Agemo shook their hands with a smile, "Nice to meet you."   
"¡­It's a pleasure to meet you, too... I'm just curious about what is your beast form¡­" Stun whispered, "¡­I've never seen anything like your wings¡­ I mean, I don't know what kind of the wings are¡­"   
"They are dragon." 

"¡­A dragon?" Stun looked surprised, "I never knew they were true¡­"   
"What do you mean?"   
"¡­Dragon zoanthropes were extremely rare¡­ Most of them are man-made, and only one out of every ten dragon zoanthropes was a natural zoanthrope¡­"   
"I am a natural zoanthrope." Agemo said, "Natural dragon zoanthropes are just rarer than dinosaur zoanthropes, like Alica Tylon."   
"What? How did you know I'm a dinosaur?" Alica, a natural Utah raptor zoanthrope, asked.   
"It's just my genetically engineered senses."   
"¡­You are an Elite zoanthrope?" Stun this time became filled with questions. "¡­I heard that only they can undergo gene therapies to increase their senses."   
Nodding, Agemo said, "Indeed, I am one, but I only regained my dragon yesterday¡­"   
"What?"   
"¡­I had Unborn genes inside me, and they suppressed my dragon form¡­ I just get rid of those unnatural genes and became a dragon again¡­" Agemo explained, "¡­and I'm just getting use to my true beast form, or rather, I have never used it entirely in my life¡­"   
"Oh, I see, but what about your wounds?" Shannon said, pointing to the bandages slightly soaked with blood.   
"I don't know, but I guess they won't heal until I've regain most of my strength¡­ I've wasted too much of my energy in a battle¡­"   
"What battle?" Alica asked.   
Agemo looked at her, then at Shannon and Stun before taking a deep breath, "¡­I met someone who I don't know if he's a clone or not¡­"   
"Uh?"   
Agemo took another deep breath and stated everything he knew about Agrimson to them. 

"¡­Very strange¡­" Stun was the first to comment, "¡­a clone or a impersonator? It's hard to tell¡­"   
"Could he be a twin brother?" Shannon's voice cut in. Agemo looked at her straight.   
"I don't think so, but it's possible," Agemo rubbed his forehead again, "For now, anything could be possible. I know I'll find out later¡­ Now, I need some rest¡­" He leaned back on the futon.   
"Okay. Have a good rest. See you tomorrow." Shannon stood up and ran a hand through his thin hair, then walked away with her friends. 

About a few months later, Agemo decided to test out his true beast form, getting used to his loss of telepathic abilities and inhuman strength. He still had his speed, agility, and reflex, though.   
"But what about your wounds?" Shannon pointed to the still bandaged, unhealed wounds.   
"They won't interrupt my skill really that much," Agemo said, putting on a brand new navy ninja gi Shannon gave him three months ago.   
"Well, I guess I can't stop you from leaving,"   
"I'm not leaving, I'm just talking a flight out here," he smiled, "oh by the way, do you know any long, twisted valley nearby?"   
"Yeah, I know one," she brightened up, "and I can take you there."   
"Sure." 

Soon, Agemo and Shannon reached the valley.   
"Here you go." The falcon zoanthrope said, her wings flapping behind her.   
Agemo scanned its entrance. It was a long, ragged 'V' shaped valley with forest at the bottom.   
"How long is it?" the black dragon said.   
"Always take me an hour to finish dashing though it," she faced the entrance, "follow me." 

Agemo quickly banked to right, following the falcon. Shannon navigated the narrowing valley skillfully. She quickly became perpendicular to the ground, gliding through an extremely narrow crack. Agemo did the same but scrapped his spiked tail against a surface. About thirty minutes into the valley, the valley widened and the two aerial zoanthropes slow down.   
"Pretty good, eh?" the black dragon asked the falcon.   
"Not bad for the first time," she turned right at a fork and into an ambush. 

Shannon faced a gunship hidden by a section of the wall before the fork. She instinctively braked and the gunship pounced at her with bullets brutally. They swiftly rolled, dodging the blazing barrage of bullets. Agemo did it well, as his wings didn't need to be perfectly intact to sustain him, letting a few bullets to penetrate his wings but still remained hovering. He felt a few searing pains in his left arm but ignored them. Shannon, in other words, couldn't sustain several bullets in her wings and dropped into the forest below like a rock. Agemo instantly closed his wings and dropped into the forest below him, finding Shannon perching on a thick branch. The gunship turned around and left. Agemo perched at the same branch as her. Her wings and left arm were bleeding with bullet holes on them.   
"Are you alright?" he asked in a concerned tone.   
"¡­My wings¡­ I can't fly with them like that¡­" the falcon held the agony painfully.   
With a second of thinking, Agemo said, "Do you need me to carry you back?"   
"Okay." She looked at him, "And so Agrimson is real."   
Agemo nodded and remembered about his spiked back. Then he morphed back into his human form but left his slightly tattered wings intact. Then he walked to the injured falcon zoanthrope, who transformed back into her human form but her arm was still bleeding. She piggybacked him and they soared up high into the clear air. 

Agemo carefully landed on the balcony and let his wings to disappear before walking Shannon inside her house.   
"What happened?" Alica said, dropping a magazine onto a coffee table.   
"We ran into an ambush." Shannon replied, clutching her bleeding arm.   
Alica quickly leaded Shannon into another room while Stun walked in.   
"¡­You are injured, too." Stun said.   
"Uh?" Agemo noticed several new bleeding bullet holes in his arms, "Oh."   
"¡­You are also healing¡­"   
It was true, all of his old wounds were gone and his new bullet holes immediately closed and healed, leaving not a single scar.   
"¡­That's just damn fast, much faster than a normal zoanthropes¡­" the ex-human zoanthrope exclaimed at Agemo's healing speed.   
"I have never noticed about it." Agemo shook his head. 

Two weeks later, when Shannon's wounds healed completely, they received an invitation to a tournament designated for only zoanthropes in India.   
"There's a prize cash but you have to fight against the Prince of India? Strange." Agemo mumbled, passing Shannon the red handout, "Why would they risk their prince's life to other zoanthropes?   
"He's a Phoenix, and he's just about as powerful and rare as a dragon." Shannon studied the handout carefully.   
"Yeah, and I'm having bad feelings about it."   
"Are you kidding!? I think we all shall go! It's going to be a nice way to test ourselves out!"   
"Okay. I think I would like to try out that Phoenix prince." Agemo shrugged. 

"A Phoenix? What the hell, I thought it's just a myth!" Kenji exclaimed, reading the invitation outside his home.   
"It's very interesting, and I would like to try this one!" Yugo said.   
"But only the last one standing can fight against the Phoenix, I'm afraid you'll need lots of practice." Alice smiled to her boyfriend, "since it's a single elimination tournament."   
"Practice? We don't have time! It's starting in two days!" the wolf zoanthrope said, spotting Long and Jane, carrying sport bags, walking by.   
"Hey, where are you going?" Kenji greeted them.   
"India, for the tournament." Jane answered, "Dad's already waiting at the airport for us."   
"Whoa, you are going, too?" Uriko asked Long.   
"Indeed. I am going to test myself out, physically and mentally. I also would like to meet a Phoenix zoanthrope, as I have heard of them but never met them or saw them fight. They are extremely rare and unique." 

Agemo walked into the jet, finding his seat and sat down at his window seat. Shannon sat down beside him. He was wearing navy shirt and dark blue jeans. Shannon was also wearing slacks as well as Stun and Alica, who sat in the seats front of them. Agemo looked out the window with a faint smile.   
"Are you sure you want to do it?" Shannon asked warmly at Agemo, who nodded lightly as the jet ascended from the Osaka international airport.   
At the same time, Kenji looked outside a private jet leaving the Tokyo airport. Uriko, Yugo, Alice, Long, Jane, Alan, and Jenny all were aboard the same plane. They all had an ominous feeling about it and also curious about the Phoenix zoanthrope.   
Agrimson was starting a gunship's engine at the same time. 

-----------   
**Author's Note:** Anyone agree with the tournament and death to toxic wastes ideas? *raises his hand* I would explain more about their reasons to the tournament later on... ~_~;; I don't want to follow Hudson's footsteps. Now onto The Shattered Alliance Ch. 3: The _Dauntless_!!! 


	8. Chapter 7: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Drago...

Disclaimer: I do not own any of those BR characters. They belong to Hudson. I do own Agemo, Shannon, and Agrimson. @_@ HEY! I DO OWN THE IDEAS OF MY STORY!!! *shakes his fists angrily at a possible rip-off*   
Dedication: Thanks to God and my friends! Thanks to Tiger5913 for a few critisms! Heh... Critisms... Gotta to love them for making your fics better!   
Note: _Italic_ means thoughts of a character/emphasizing/narration 

**The Hidden One**   
By RAYClovis

**Chapter 7: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon**

Agemo rubbed his eyes as he woke up. Yawning lightly, he covered his mouth and drew himself up. He tried to shrug his shoulders individually, and, to his surprise, found Shannon dozing off on his shoulder. With a sigh, he sincerely hoped it was turbulence. He checked the tiny monitor installed in the back of the chair in front of him.   
_Mmm. Only one hour left._   
Bored, he tapped Shannon's shoulder lightly.   
"Oh what? Oh, sorry about that." She finally woke and apologized.   
"You don't have to, anyway, we are only an hour to India."   
"Yeah." The falcon nodded tiresomely.   
"Frankly, I hope I can fight up in the mountains." The dragon zoanthrope scratched his head. "I tend to fight better in cold environments than tropic. Ironically, I'm a reptile."   
"Yeah, a dragon is like a modified flying lizard, right?"   
He nodded, smiling faintly. "You got it." 

Kenji walked through the sea of people overflowing the airport, trying to catch on with his brother. It wasn't long before he realized that he lost the wolf zoanthrope.   
"Great, just great." Uriko complained to herself, brushing her bride back. The cat zoanthrope was wearing a loose sky-blue T-shirt and faded jeans. Slinging over her shoulder was a dark-colored backpack.   
"Yeah, let's take some bites first, I'm starving." He slung his sport bag over his shoulder, putting a hand in his sweatpants pocket. For some unknown reasons, his hair had become chestnut brown just same as his girlfriend's hair. The ninja didn't complain about it, instead, he admired his new hair color.   
The two zoanthropes moved slowly in the crowds, squeezing past people. Although the food court was only less than a minute away without the crowd, it actually took two minutes to reach there. The food court was also crowded but not as much as the previous gauntlets. The young boy quickly picked an empty table and tossed his contemporary sport back onto a seat, sitting down on another seat right adjacent to Uriko.   
"Let's see what we've got…" the boy scanned the food court, then looked at his girlfriend, "how about some good old Japanese?"   
"Sure!"   
"As always?"   
"Of course."   
"No problem." Kenji stood up and walked toward a Japanese fast-food place.   
The fast-food place had not as many people as the others and it was his turn in less than two minutes. Soon enough, He headed back to his table with a tray. He started enjoying his sushi as his girlfriend wolfed down on her plate of boiled fish. He silently hoped the boiled fish was boneless. While he chewed, suddenly a strong hand slammed to his back, almost causing him to choke.   
"…I am not a punching bag." Kenji said slowly to the mutt behind him.   
"Yeah." Yugo said, taking a bite out of his burger.   
"Guys, it's time! The bus is waiting for us now! Let's go!" Alan Gado said, clapping his hands once. The auburn hair teenager boy shoved the remains of his burger entirely into his mouth as he ran across the airport, right behind his beloved kitten.   
The ninja sat on his comfortable seat, looking out the window at the airport terminal. They were still waiting for the remaining zoanthropes to hop on the bus. As he noticed, almost everyone in the bus was zoanthrope. There were still four zoanthropes who hadn't arrived yet. The bus' engine roared and started up. Suddenly a young man hopped into the bus, almost too late. Another man and two young women were following him, apparently the four had arrived now. Kenji and all of his friends glanced at the young man.   
_Huh, how is that possible? I thought he was dead!_

Agemo managed to catch the bus and made sure that Shannon and her friends were here too, then he turned to look for his seats.   
"Whoa!" He saw everyone in the bus.   
"Agemo?" the Ohgami boys and Nonomura girls said in unison.   
"Hi guys." The dragon zoanthrope looked back at Shannon then he quickly introduced her to them. "Oh and, Shannon, this is…"   
Soon enough, the bus was on its way toward the zoanthrope section of the metropolis. Agemo sat silently in the bus for most of the time, talking to some of his friends. Shannon got along with the girls unusually easy. The dragon ninja leaned back and rested on his chair.   
_Boy, we surely don't understand a woman's thinking…_   
At the hotel, everyone got a four-man two-bedroom room. Unfortunately, there were only two couple's beds in each of the hotel room and there were no other beds. The manager had to apologize to Alice, who kept warning Kenji about sleeping with her sister. The mole zoanthrope merely nodded repeatedly, saying, "Yeah, I know, yeah, I know…"   
As for Agemo's situation, he volunteered to sleep outside on the tiny couch and he didn't rest that much anyway. Afterward, they all were taken to the tournament headquarter next day for registrations. 

The dragon zoanthrope filled out his application form with brutal honesty and handed the green form to an Indian worker wearing a blue cap.   
"Thanks, Mister Ageemo Krimagi." The worker tipped his cap.   
"Excuse me, but my name is pronounced as 'Ajeemo'." The dragon corrected the worker with complete politeness.   
"Okay… A dragon?" the worker took another glimpse at the application form, then scoffed, "Good try, but we don't know that you are really a dragon, or even an zoanthrope. You can try it, though. If you can survived a chest-ripping animal, that is. Next."   
Already predicted the worker's reply, Agemo stood up and walked out of the damp room. The blazing sun scorched his skin, he knew he needs to go someplace cool before he becomes a roasted dragon. He crossed the road and headed for an alley that had been serving as a shortcut to his hotel. 

The next week, when the tournament was finally done planning, Kenji and his friends went back to the headquarter for some information on the tournament as well as the Phoenix prince. The headquarter was already crowded with zoanthropes. The dragon was already there with the falcon zoanthrope, studying a large white graph. The graph was a type of graphs used for most tournaments with red lines and at the bottom was a long row of names. On the upper-right corner was the number of competitors, showing that there were about 256 competitors. It was a long time before Uriko and Kenji found everyone's name and copied down all the battles consisting of their friends.   
The list showed the first day of the tournament: 

_Day 1- 6:00 AM: Kenji the Mole VS. Theodore the Cheetah_   
_Day 1- 9:00 AM: Long the Tiger VS. Haggis the Shark_   
_Day 1- 1:30 PM: Jenny the Bat VS. Milan the Hawk_   
_Day 1- 7:30 PM: Alice the Rabbit VS. Kari the Jaguar_   
_Day 1- 12:00 AM: Agemo the Dragon VS. Shenlong the Tiger_

"…Shenlong?" A curious glint glimmered in Long's eyes.   
"That's your clone." Alan nodded grimly, "looks like he survived the blow…"   
"Very likely." The tiger zoanthrope sighed and shook his head. "I can't believe there are so many unexpected coincidences in this tournament…"   
"What are you going to do anyway?" Agemo muttered, "Even if he's your clone, he's still an individual, there is nothing you really can do about it. Unless you are reckless enough to go out and kill him."   
Long stared at the dragon zoanthrope, "…You made a point, I can't do anything and it is basically pointless to fight him."   
"All the battles start next week! Everyone meet here for the battle!" an announcer shouted via a microphone.   
"While we've got the time, let's enjoy and ready ourselves first." Yugo snickered. 

The first day of the tournament arrived and Kenji was placed right in the very first battle of the entire tournament. He had a tough time getting up from his bed in 4:00 AM to get ready.   
_…Damn Yugo and his party animal personality…_   
His shoulder still ached faintly from last night's unnecessary party. He climbed into a helicopter and sat down. The helicopter roared and soared into air before moving toward the battlefield, a dense forest at the base of a snowcapped mountain. His long red scarf fluttered in the strong, cold wind as he tightened his dark gray sleeveless ninja gi, making adjustments to his gloves. His steady eyes scanned the forest below him.   
_Somehow, fire and trees don't match._

"…Do we always have to go to the bar…?" the dark brown-haired man looked at the sign above him.   
"Come on! Where else you can enjoy it with others?" Yugo motioned the ninja to come in.   
"Oh well, in case you don't know yet. I have to meet Shannon and others at the bowling alley. You can go in and enjoy if you want." Agemo looked across the street, at a bowling alley, and then he walked toward it. "Just don't tell me to come and translate anymore."   
"Hey! Wait for me!" the wolf zoanthrope looked around. "Where else I can find a walking universal translator beside you?"   
"Ask the tour guide, I'm tired of being a translator anyway." The dragon zoanthrope quickly disappeared into the bowling alley. 

"Another double strike!" Uriko cheered, taunting her bowling opponent.   
"Hey! I just learned to play ten-pin bowling!" the rabbit zoanthrope continued her search for an appropriate bowling ball.   
"Oh and, Kenji's battle's going to start!" the cat zoanthrope rushed to the restaurant, where a television was installed and everyone was waiting.   
Alice groaned, putting a slightly too heavy ball back on a rack.   
"Your boyfriend's at the pub." Agemo walked by her toward the waiting company, jerking a thumb behind him. 

"Whoa! He's so cute!" the cat zoanthrope exclaimed at the television showing her boyfriend standing in the midst of a dense forest.   
A smiling reporter appeared beside the young ninja.   
"Hello Kenji Ohgami. May I ask what's your purpose for joining this zoanthrope tournament?" the reporter inquired the boy.   
"Um, I was curious all about that Phoenix zoanthrope, and it's been a long time since my last fight. I planned to come here to speculate the Phoenix's battle skill. But I will be disappointed and rip his head off if he happened to be a chicken." The teenager winked at the camera. "I'm also here for my kitten."   
"Oh you have a cat?"   
"Err… Close, but I mean my girlfriend, who's also a combatant of this tournament."   
"Ah I see, I guess you can go now." The reporter turned to the camera. "This was Kenji the Mole and his fighting style is Katou Ryu Ninjustu… What do it means?"   
The ninja merely shrugged. "A branch of Dragon Ninjustu."   
"Oh I see I see."   
"Anyway, are we done with interviewing yet?"   
"Yeah, it's time for you and your opponent to meet and fight." 

Agemo sat down between Alan Gado and Shannon Tsunami, the television screen showing Kenji and his opponent's close up pictures, with a bold, red 'VS' between the photo and a forest background. Below the photos were their names and beast forms.   
"Kenji the Mole VS Theodore the Cheetah." A female voice said from the TV set, then the screen showed the mole zoanthrope standing in the forest, facing his opponent. 

Kenji studied the cheetah zoanthrope standing only a few feet from him. The cheetah zoanthrope was a big, muscular man wearing a camouflage cargo pants and a steel-colored T-shirt. He had nicely groomed dark brown hair and blue eyes. He looked more Greek than any other zoanthropes Kenji met before. The cheetah zoanthrope was also a boxer like Yugo. The ninja bowed traditionally before moving into his battle stance, tabbing his shurikens tucked into his belt. Shurikens and other small throwing weapons were allowed in all battles, but anything larger weren't allowed except in a few special matches.   
"Ready." A youthful female voice said. "Fight."   
Quickly, the cheetah lunged at Kenji with his fists poised to strike. The ninja leaped to one side, dodging it effectively, and quickly kicked his opponent twice, sending him ascending. While they were still airborne, the mole zoanthrope then slammed a heel into the burly man's head, bouncing him on the ground. Kenji landed and leaped back. The cheetah zoanthrope quickly stood up with a missed kick.   
"Not so bad, kid." He said and dashed at the ninja.   
The ninja turned around and ran up a thick tree until he was at the top. His opponent had morphed into his yellow cheetah form, spotted by black spots. The cheetah dug his claws deep into the tree and started rocking it, attempting to fall it. The teenager waited patiently until the tree started falling, and then he quickly leaped from the tree to another. The cheetah roared, meaning, "Get your ass down here!" in zoanthrope language.   
Kenji then kicked away from the tree, somersaulting in the air calmly and landed smoothly right behind his opponent. Silently, he grabbed his foe's exposed back and leaped up high into air with the cheetah. Locking the cheetah, the ninja turned his opponent upside-down and quickly prevented him from breaking free. The cheetah bashed his head against the ground hard enough to bounce while the ninja landed safely not far. He stood up angrily and grabbed for the ninja. Kenji leaped away again but his opponent grabbed his long, red scarf.   
Seemly smirking, the feline creature jerked at the red scarf hard, pulling its wearer toward him. Taking the chance, he landed a powerful punch at the teenager's face squarely, sending the mole zoanthrope flying across the small opening and into a tree.   
_Ouch._   
Kenji then quickly struggled to stand up, feeling blood flowing out of his split lips. He saw his feline foe dashing at him again, this time the cheetah's claws were ready to rip. Instinctively, the ninja ran up the tree behind him and leaped from it. Back flipping through the air, he floated over his opponent and landed behind him again. But the cheetah saw it coming and turned around before the ninja landed. Kenji immediately felt a series of sharp pain from his chest as his opponent swiftly slashed at him twice, the last blow sending him flying again.   
When he stood up again, he had four long bleeding gashes on his chest and a cut right above his left eye. Placing a hand against his chest, he quickly pulled out three small, black shurikens, tucking them between his fingers. The cheetah charged at him again and the ninja hurled the three projectiles at him simultaneously. The feline zoanthrope twisted to a side, out of a shuriken's path and into the other two's. Seeing two shurikens attaching themselves to his opponent's back, Kenji concentrated on his genes and morphed, ripping his shirt into pieces as his enormous claws formed. As his opponent continued to attempt to pull the shurikens from his back, the mole quickly thrust his claws at the feline opponent. The big cat smashed through several trees before stopping, scrapping his back against the ground. He howled as the two shurikens dug deeper into his back. When he stood up, the ninja had teleported right in front of him.   
The mole quickly poised his left claws for a sideways slash, channeling it with flaming energy, and struck his opponent clearly.   
_ Double Inferno._ his mind screeched.   
Kenji dashed past his opponent, leaving the boxer burning in a trail of fire, and faced him; his palms closed together in front of his orange-red eyes. Instead of circling around his opponent as he had done to his other opponents in past time, he dashed past the cheetah again, leaving a trail of fire. Then he teleported to a random direction, facing his opponent, and dashed past and burned his opponent again. He repeated the process, picking up speed until he became a blur and almost created three trails of flames at once. After he dashed past his opponent for the twentieth time, he stopped but there were two of his images, facing his opponent. The two images dashed past the struggling cheetah for the last time with a powered slash, forming a cross of fire. Unable to withstand the tremendous heat, the ninja's opponent dropped of his knees and collapsed, reverting back into his human form. One of Kenji's ghostly image disappeared and the other reverted back into human form. The ninja turned around and stared at his charred opponent, amazed by the new variety of his Beast Drive.   
"What the…?" he whispered, not knowing what affected his instincts for executing his Beast Drives.   
The burnt man didn't stir.   
"10… 9… 8…" the announcer began her countdown.   
Kenji's sight locked firmly at his opponent but the charred man remained unmoving.   
"7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… 0! Kenji won the match!" 

"You surely almost killed him." Agemo sipped his drink, frowning. The TV was showing Long's battle.   
"Yeah, why was your Beast Drive different now?" Uriko asked her boyfriend, who was nursing his bandaged chest.   
"I don't know, but I just do it, we all let our instincts to take care of our Beast Drives, right?" the young ninja tilted his head at her.   
"Indeed, but somehow, your instincts were a bit too powerful." The dragon tapped a finger against his glass.   
"Isn't that good?"   
"Yes if your opponent is very strong. No if he or she is too weak." The older ninja leaned back against his seat.   
"Ah yeah, that cheetah you fought is still unconscious right now." Yugo grinned beside his adoptive sibling. "That last blow surely blew his mind out."   
Everyone else sighed, then witnessed Long's flawless Course to Heaven Beast Drive. 

_I know I shouldn't have accept that mutt's challenge…_   
Agemo walked down the alley alone again, his stomach filled with devoured lamb ribs.   
_Then again, dragons like to eat lambs and sheep, don't they?_   
He smirked at his own joke, but the smirk was gone when he stopped halfway in the alley. A line of thugs was blocking his way and he knew it wasn't good. He looked back, seeing that another line of thugs also blocked his escape route. What's worse is that they were all zoanthropes. He knew if he had to escape, the only ways would be through them or up. The leader, a burly, bald Indian man wearing black leather, was only a few feet away from the dragon.   
"Give me all of your dough or I'll have my men to beat you up." The leader threatened in Indian.   
Agemo shook his head, remembering that he left his wallet at his room, and replied the leader in Indian, "I don't have any money."   
"Oh yeah right?" the leader motioned to a thug to search the ninja.   
The dragon zoanthrope held his hands up, letting the thug to search his body. The thug pulled out a long flute tucked into his belt but nothing else. The ninja stared at the thug, for the flute was his most favored item beside his katana.   
"Give that flute back-" before he could snatch the flute out of the thug, another strong thug shoved him into a wall.   
"Shut up, it's none of your business." The leader waved the flute, "how much this piece of shit worth? Damn it, let's beat him up." He motioned to his men.   
_Great._   
The ninja quickly ducked and dodged a punch. Locking his glare at the gang leader, he quickly ran up the wall behind him and leaped to the other wall. Grabbing a hanging rope, he ran down it and toward the leader, who had morphed into his beast form. Using his speed and agility, he snatched the flute out of the leader's claws and tucked it back into his belt. He heard several metallic clicking.   
The ninja quickly looked around him. All the thugs pulled out a pistol each and cocked the hammers skillfully. Instinctively, he ran up the wall right in front of him, shoving the leader out of the way. Before the leader could do anything, Agemo ran up to the roof easily. Unfortunately, several thugs wielding assault rifles were waiting. Bullets almost pounced on the ninja's head as he quickly dropped back to the ground.   
"Think we'll rob a zoanthrope unprepared!?" the leader roared. "Oh and you are that fake dragon freak, right?"   
_So he knows who am I._   
Bullets were fired toward Agemo again, but he quickly dodged most of them. One of the bullets had left a cut in his cheek, which he scarcely noticed. Finally decided to morph, he crossed his lower arms in front of his face and the gunfire ceased. Channeling energy into his back, a pair of huge black wings formed as his skin became covered in black scales. Quickly, he threw his arms to his sides, fanning his enormous wings outward, and looked up with his crimson eyes. The thugs resumed firing, but this time Agemo wasn't going to be merciful. He soared and landed outside the walls of gunners. He cocked his head, ready for a devastating move. Black energy began to swirl inside his mouth as he continued charging his mouth with it. The gang leader turned white, turned around, and fled as quickly as possible with his gang. But the black dragon was faster as he lunged his head forward with a deafening roar, sending a long, twisting beam of black flames at the fleeing thugs from his mouth. The flames caught, licked them easily, and sent all of the burning thugs flying into a building hard. By then, the black dragon had morphed back into his human form and sped away before they could recover, the tormented wails flying into his keen ears.   
_Sorry about that, but I had to do it._   
He was glad that his bloodlust alter ego didn't wake up. 

Shannon shrugged her shoulders as she pushed the door open and walked into her room. As soon as she entered, music flooded her. She looked at the music's source, it was from the balcony, where Agemo was sitting on the railing facing outward, his legs dangling. The falcon zoanthrope slowly walked toward him. He turned around and smiled at her, in his hands was a long dark brown flute.   
"That was a nice song," she said, smiling at him.   
"Thanks, I was just calming myself down." He looked at the sunset.   
"Oh."   
"It's something which I haven't told anyone yet, but…" He closed his eyes, then opened them at her. "I have an alter ego which haven't waken up for a long time."   
"What was the alter ego like?" she leaned against the railing beside the ninja.   
"Bloodlust." He replied honestly, staring at his flute blankly. "It happens only when I killed or injured too much at once. When it happens, it's very hard to calm myself down."   
"Oh, so you use the flute to calm yourself down?"   
"Indeed, after every ten people I… killed or injured. And also when my mental power was weakened to a degree." He drew a deep breath. "It had been a troublesome day. I almost thought it's going to wake up, it didn't, but it was close enough."   
"Okay, anyway, that was a beautiful song." She smiled again.   
"Thanks, I'm going to have to sing it again anyway." He put the flute to his lips and started playing it, closing his eyes.   
The falcon zoanthrope also closed her eyes, listening to the unusual calm, yet beautiful and colorful music. She felt awareness and calmness in her mind. Her heart continued enjoying the silent and powerful harmony. It bloomed slowly but it made a tremendous effect in her mood. The falcon and dragon zoanthropes continued to listen, feeling the cool breeze weaving through their hair, brushing their faces. She had never felt that close to the nature. The two smiled as the golden rays continued to gleam. 

Agemo looked up at the black sky, it was all clear and calm. A bright crescent moon hung in the middle of the shining stars. The breeze was still cool in midnight. He stood in the middle of the rooftop of a building. The sides were fenced with large, duct hatches. He was wearing his navy ninja gi, with a pair of long rips on the back created by his wings and the cuffs were tore and tattered.   
A reporter walked to him with a cameraman behind him.   
"Hi Mr. Ageemo Krimagi." The reporter said, unaware of the mispronunciation of the ninja's name.   
"My name is pronounce as 'Ajeemo Kreemagee'." He corrected the reporter. "It's okay, you are not the first one."   
"Oh my bad, sorry, Mr. Agemo Krimagi. Oh and, what's your purpose for joining this tournament?"   
"I am here for one thing, to see the Phoenix zoanthrope. I have heard about them but never saw anyone of them, actually. I am eager to fight against a Phoenix in a friendly match." The young man smiled, "I am here also to accompany my friends."   
"Oh thanks Mr. Krimagi. You are a dragon zoanthrope?"   
"Indeed I am."   
"Are you sure that you are not some kind of flying lizard?"   
"I am positive that I am a dragon as I have no other words to describe my beast form. Just wait and see."   
"Okay, what's your fighting style? Ninjustu?"   
"Yeah, I'm another ninja, but I use the Dragon of Dark Energy Ninjustu."   
"What do that means?"   
"That means I'm more of speed-oriented and I have to use my energy often if I want to lift my opponent. In other words, I'm very weak in terms of strength."   
"Oh I see, thanks for your assistance." The reporter looked up at the sky, where a helicopter was approaching them. "Here come your opponent. I wish you luck." The reporter and the cameraman turned and climbed aboard another helicopter.   
Agemo walked away from the ascending helicopter and toward the middle of the rooftop, where the other helicopter landed for a brief moment before lifting away, revealing his smirking opponent.   
Shenlong was a Chinese man with black hair and a waist-length ponytail. His eyes were maroon. He was wearing a grayish Chinese outfit, with the sleeves just long enough to cover his elbows, a pair of black pants, and olive green gloves. Two long scars positioned on his face, one of them on the forehead and the other on his lower right cheek. 

"Here he is." Kenji pointed at the television screen showing both Agemo and Shenlong.   
"Wow, all that clone got was a pair of scars on his face." Yugo said, then he scanned the restaurant. "Where's that old lion?"   
"Mr. Gado was taking care of Jenny at the hospital." Alice said, rubbing her bandaged forehead. She and Long had won their battle but Jenny had not.   
"Wow, Agemo is a dragon." The wolf remarked.   
"Uh-huh, he once had mentioned something about his true beast form, but he didn't tell us. A dragon zoanthrope? Wow, that's two rare zoanthropes!" Long tapped a side of his glasses.   
"I wonder how long the battle will last?"   
"I'll bet ten or fifteen minutes." Kenji took a sip of his drink.   
"It was amazing that Kenji finished his battle within five minutes when it took me and Alice more than ten minutes to finish our foes off…" Long commented.   
"That's because his opponent was not an energy user."   
"And you two caused more environment damage than me." The ninja scoffed.   
"Bah, at least I wasn't the one who started a forest fire." Alice ran a hand through her blue hair. The end of Kenji's battle also started a new battle between the firefighters and the raging forest fire.   
"Yeah right, I didn't destroyed three lampposts and seven cars." The mole zoanthrope commented about Alice's battle.   
"Stop it you guys! You haven't seen nothing yet!" Uriko broke the argument.   
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about your pinball Beast Drive." The mole zoanthrope smacked his forehead.   
"Yeah, luckily the host was rich enough that you can destroy absolutely everything in the battlefield! If one arena is one entire city, then you can nuke the hell out of it!"   
"Quiet! The battle's on!" the wolf zoanthrope pointed at the television, where Agemo and Shenlong were in their battle poses already. "I bet twenty dollars they'll destroy three cars!"   
"One thousand dollars for destroying the entire building." the auburn-haired ninja suggested jokingly.   
"Deal!" The boxer agreed, rendering his sibling speechless.   
"Ready…" said the announcer. 

"…Fight!"   
The tiger zoanthrope quickly jabbed at the dragon zoanthrope repeatedly. The ninja was much faster and he dodged them all without problem at all. Not frustrated, the tiger zoanthrope started his six level combo ring of Serpent with a hard stomp. The stomp missed but he followed it up by striking with both hands in a snake-like manner quickly. The ninja, who had jumped to dodge the stomp, blocked it quickly. The tiger zoanthrope then stride kicked with his left foot and kicked the ninja's chin miraculously. Agemo staggered after the kick and quickly flipped away, dodging a low blow. Then he hopped back at his opponent, his fist charged with swirling black energy. Seeing an opening in his opponent's defense, he smashed his powered fist into Shenlong's face hard. There was a howl of pain as the energy within his fist exploded into his opponent, sending him sailing across the arena smoothly and into the wall, denting it with a loud smacking sound. The black-haired man was standing up, wiping blood from his mouth when the ninja charged at him.   
Agemo focused his energy into his right foot as he shot at his recovering opponent. As soon as he was close enough, he delivered a powerful thrusting kick to his opponent's chest. The wall behind his opponent gave in and fell. Fluidly Shenlong flipped up with a kick, almost knocking into the ninja, who was charging energy into his fist again but this time surrounded by a greenish-blue aura. The tiger zoanthrope struck his opponent directly but the greenish-blue aura had prevented the ninja from being interrupted. The Chinese man realized it too late as the Japanese man smashed his powered fist into his flank.   
Shenlong screamed, grabbing for air as he fell. The ninja quickly ran to the edge and leaped without a hesitant, and then he hooked his feet to on a bar, watching patiently as his opponent fell. It was a twenty-five-story fall but most zoanthrope could survive that. The tiger zoanthrope quickly morphed into his grayish tiger form and smashed his back through a car. The streets were empty because areas nearby were sealed for the safety and the matches. As soon as his opponent crash-landed, the dragon zoanthrope unhooked his feet and dropped through the air. Quickly he realigned himself to be parallel to the ground, with two arms fully outstretched and bent a knee until it leveled with his abdomen. He remained in the pose until he had fallen for ten stories, where he crossed his lower arms in front of his face, covering it. He emitted a howl as he jerked his head upward, then downward, flinging his arms to his sides and morphing.   
The wings quickly materialized and slowed down his fall drastically, then they folded compactly and the dragon picked up speed, hurling and looming over the tiger like a ravaging meteor. Right before he land, the tiger leaped back and the dragon outstretched his wings again only a story before landing. With a growl each, the two beasts quickly charged at each other. Shenlong quickly rolled into a furry ball hurling at the dragon, which shirked it and stretched out his tail. The scales on the tail stood out, producing curved, sharp edges. Instantly he coiled his long, slender tail around the gray tiger, digging the scales deep into its furs and flesh. Then the black dragon smashed his opponent into a lamppost, collapsing it. However, his rival's arms were free.   
Shenlong let out a loud scream of agony that was enough to make the dragon flinch. He grabbed the tip of the black tail, bearing the immense pain which shot all over his tiger body, and jerked it away from his body. He was amazed by the weakness of the dragon and quickly removed himself from the deadly coil, jumping away from the mystical creature and smashing the black tail into a taxi nearby. The tiger panted heavily, staring at his opponent. He was bleeding all over his body and he had a hard time closing all the wounds. His opponent's tail was stuck in the taxicab, limiting the dragon's movement. Filled with fury, he decided that he should finish his opponent as quickly as possible.   
_ Ferocious Tiger Laceration._   
The tiger zoanthrope then was instantly surrounded by a greenish-blue aura, stomping toward the trapped dragon. Agemo sensed the massive energy inside his stomping enemy and quickly tried to free himself desperately and vainly again. At his fourth stomp, the tiger brought his arms down at his opponent, grabbing his arm. Then he quickly grabbed his opponent's head with his left hand, his right paw reared behind him and poised to strike. The tiger roared, charging every single ounce of his remaining beast energy into his right paw, and thrust it into his opponent's abdomen while reverting back into human form. A long, powerful beam led by a ghastly image of Shenlong in his tiger from shot from the tiger's paw and pushed the dragon and the taxicab into a side of the very building they started fighting. Agemo threw back his head and howl as the beam crushed him into the mangled vehicle savagely. Every viewer winced at the dragon's unusually high-pitched howl, including Shenlong himself. The powerful beam continued to wreak havoc on the dragon's physical energy as well as his mental energy. The tiger zoanthrope then quickly stomped again, ending the furious assault. The black figure collapsed, remaining in his beast form. Smokes were coming out of his body and the black scales rendered it hard to spot the burns. A pool of crimson blood slowly formed around the black figure.   
"10… 9…" the announcer began her countdown.   
Shenlong smirked as the announcer said, "7… 6…"   
Then suddenly with a loud cracking sound, the black figure's tattered wings stood up. The Chinese man was surprised that the dragon still had fight inside him. Slowly, Agemo stood up, revealing several burn marks and rips on his belly. He groaned painfully, as smokes continued coming out of his burn. His tail was freed from the mangled taxicab and laid lifelessly behind him. The wings were badly tattered but still could fly the dragon barely. The dragon felt that his energy was almost disposed but there's barely enough for one last attack, one last energy attack… Shenlong quickly charged at the dragon and attempted a flying kick. Agemo sustained the kick with a grunt, then he lashed out a hand and clutched to his opponent's throat, nicking the talons' tips deep into the flesh. He closed his eyes for a moment, then snapped them opened, exposing the bloodlust alter ego. The dragon looked at the struggling man, then up at the sky, where a thunderstorm was forming.   
_Perfect._   
The black creature looked as if he's smirking.   
_Let's see if it'll work… Malignant Twister._   
Agemo let out a scream loud and high enough to shatter nearby glass and shot upward into air, carrying his opponent. As soon as they were high above the building, he threw the hapless man at the rooftop. His opponent landed hard on right in the middle of the rooftop in a spread eagle pose. Shenlong felt as if every single one of his bones was shattered upon the impact, and found himself unable to move. He made weak, hoarse sounds, terrorized by the sight of the black dragon above him.   
The dragon outstretched his tattered wings, summoning all of his last energy into his mouth. He cocked his head back. Then a lightning struck his wings, absorbed by the black dragon as a blue energy orb formed in front of his gaping mouth. As more and more lightning struck and got absorbed, the swirling energy orb in front of the black dragon increased in size. Soon, it was about the size of a mini-van, and he hurled his head at the immobilized man. With a blinding flash of light, a long twisting beam of blue wailing lightning was fired from the dragon's mouth. It moved and struck at the speed of lightning. There was a deafening explosion as soon as the powerful attack hit dead-on. The building Shenlong was on exploded and collapsed into a mass of flaming rubble. Using the very last ounce of his energy, Agemo landed safely on the massive heap of rubble before reverting back into human form.   
His body was still badly injured and he sighted Shenlong, still alive and unconscious, lying below a heap of mangled metals and shattered cements. He looked up at the hovering helicopters.   
"10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… 0! Agemo the Dragon had officially won this match!" the announcer shouted with trace of fear in her voice.   
The ninja could hear the sounds of ambulances and fire engines approaching and sighed, then he slowly sat down and dug into his chest pockets for his flute. 

All viewers in the restaurant were staring at the television, their jaws dropped.   
"…Was that only a fraction of his power…?" Kenji asked, not believing the devastating power of a dragon zoanthrope.   
"…Very likely…" Long nodded.   
"…At least his opponent was also a good energy user… Otherwise, his opponent would be dead already…"   
"Yeah, I swear nobody would want to fight him afterward." Yugo said.   
"Don't forget that he and the prince are not the only mystical creatures, there are also an Unborn, a chimera, an unicorn, and a Cerberus…" Kenji elbowed his brother. "You better pay up. I won." 

-------------   
**Author's Note:** *coughs* A bit too powerful? Bah, you should have wait 'til you see the Sexborn, chimewhore, and chicken wuss. Ahh... Back to BR: Survivor! ~_~;; I kinda do a bit better in serious fics, sometimes, right? 


End file.
